Occupiers LIBORate Bikes Across London

Every morning this week, Occupy activists have been up early, quietly placing stickers on the panels of the ‘Boris bikes’, which are sponsored by Barclays.

The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) rate fixing scandal is being described as possibly the biggest fraud in history, affecting hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial transactions.

Despite being set in London, the LIBOR is the average interest rate agreed by the world’s largest international banks; it indexes the short and long term interest rates for ten currencies across the world.

Occupy supporter Liz Beech gave her take on the action: “We’ve been taken for a ride by Barclays and the Financial Times is reporting that more banks will be implicated. The apparently mild response by Occupy London – stickering bikes – should not be understood to underestimate the gravity of the revelations about LIBOR. Occupiers are recognising that the corruption is beyond even our imaginings and that all financial services worldwide should be scrutinised and that all wrongdoing must be prosecuted with vigour.”

Another Occupy supporter who wished to remain anonymous said: “The bike stickers are a highly visible way of alerting busy Londoners to the issue. I went out stickering at 5am on Monday morning. I was warned that I could possibly be arrested for criminal damage. Really? I mean, who are the criminals here? Concerned citizens highlighting a huge, international fraud with stickers which don’t exactly render the bicycles useless? Or the banks which are bleeding our communities dry?”

Former Chief Executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has been forced to resign and the UK serious fraud squad have launched a criminal investigation into rate fixing.

Barclays urges customers to “let us know straight away if you have fallen victim to fraud”. Victims of LIBOR-rigging may wish to call the Barclays hotline 0845 755 5555.