(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a warning about LIBOR.
It came years ago. We now know that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner pointed out problems with the way that London's key interest rates were set. He did this in 2008, in the midst of the financial crisis at the time he was head of the New York Federal Reserve.
In a memo to the Bank of England obtained by several news organizations, Geithner suggested ways to enhance the integrity of the LIBOR. That's the London Interbank Offered Rate, which is now the center of a scandal.
Geithner was apparently worried after hearing banks were misrepresenting the benchmark.
Last month, Barclays agreed to pay U.S. and U.K. authorities $450 million to settle charges that the bank manipulated that rate. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.