Berkshire Bank, with 11 branches in New York and New Jersey and about $881 million in assets, claims in a proposed class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York that “tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars” of loans made or sold in the state were affected by rigging the London interbank offered rate. Many adjustable-rate commercial and home loans are pegged to Libor, meaning that “misrepresentation…on the date on which a loan resets will generally reduce the amount of interest that a lender receives by an equivalent amount,” the bank alleges…”Libor could well be the asbestos claims of this century,” said James Cox, a law professor at Duke University in Durham, N.C. “Misreporting an index used around the world” has “ginormous” ramifications, he added.

HSBC Hit By Provisions (WSJ)
HSBC said Monday that net profit fell in the first half, as the bank was forced to put aside $2 billion to cover the fallout of a U.S. money-laundering probe and the improper selling of financial products. The series of provisions at the bank pushed up underlying costs by $1.9 billion and ate into the lender’s bottom line, cutting net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders in the first six months by 9% to $8.15 billion.

HSBC Apologizes For Compliance Failures (Bloomberg)
“Regulatory and compliance events in the first six months of the year overshadowed financial performance,” Chairman Douglas Flint said in a statement today. “HSBC has made mista

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