On February 5, 2008 a Barclays derivatives trader frantically calls his manager to complain that the bank’s Libor submitter has put forward sky-high Libor rates: “He’s like, I think this is where it should be. I’m like, dude, you’re killing us.”

The manager tells him to "just tell him to keep it, to put it low". The trader begs the submitter to change his mind, to which the submitter replies: "I'll see what I can do." The submitter gives in to the trader. This exchange was published in the Financial Services Authority's summary of its £59.5m fine to Barclays for submitting false Libor rates, which lit a fast-burning fuse to a bomb that exploded at Barclays last month. Money-market desks typically have three functions, as identified in the FSA report. The first is a treasury function, namely to borrow or lend money for short periods to manage the bank's liquidity.