Fightback against market abuse

The fixing of key inter-bank interest rates, known as Libor by banks in London, caused outrage and renewed effort to constrain a financial sector that seems incapable of regulating itself. New measures for such transgressions, including five-year minimum prison terms, are to be voted on. We sought the views of two MEPs close to the process: Arlene McCarthy, steering it through Parliament, and Olle Schmidt, member of a key economics committee. We'll only change the culture we've seen in the financial services industry if people go to jail for what we consider to be criminal activity. So we do need these criminal sanctions. Even I, as a liberal, realise that we have to do something. If industry, business, cannot do it themselves... We need trust in the market, and we need trust from the citizens in the market, therefore we have to act. It's regulation, opening up cartels, making sure we've competition as industry. That we think will change the practices. It's harder to defend the banks today, I admit that, but I still defend that a deregulated market in more general terms, not in this case but in more general terms, has, of course, been very useful. I would say that it actually is impeding and holding back recovery because we have a loss of integrity, a loss of trust, a loss of confidence and that in the market now is one of the biggest factors why we're not getting back on track in terms of growth and prosperity. Get your act together because you need the trust, otherwise you're out of business.

EuroparlTV video ID: 5bedba07-15e2-4bfb-aeeb-a0d60128164f