Elke Koenig, the president of Germany's top financial regulator, Bafin, says the manipulation of precious metals is more serious than the Libor-rigging...

Elke Koenig, the president of Germany's top financial regulator, Bafin, says the manipulation of precious metals is more serious than the Libor-rigging scandal. The allegations are particularly serious, because such reference values are based - unlike Libor and Euribor - typically on transactions in liquid markets and not on estimates of the banks. The financial sector is dependent on the common trust that it is efficient and at the same time, honest. The central benchmark rates seemed to be beyond any doubt, and now there is the allegation they may have been manipulated. Zero Hedge weighs in saying Actually, what makes the most serious, is that precisely because they are on liquid markets means they implicitly have the blessing of the biggest New Normal market maker of call - the central banks, and their own regulator - the Bank of International Settlements.