July 2014

The Libor interest rate scandal was one of the worst rate rigging cases for the financial world.  An investigation is being led by US and British financial officers and officials of the Justice Department to bring charges against institutions that deliberately manipulated the Libor rate.

Libor, an acronym for the London Interbank Offered Rate, is used by banks to borrow money against each other.  But if Libor is deliberately manipulated to make banks appear more stable, the credibility of the Libor rate is called into question and affects financial markets everywhere.

Ride-sharing firm Lyft has finally made it to the Big Apple, after weeks of setbacks. The only way to make it to New York City, though, was to abandon the sharing aspect at the center of its business model.

Lyft will launch in NYC, but only using licensed livery drivers - a huge change from the way it operates in other states, letting ordinary drivers sell rides to other people using its service.

Mortgage rates are holding near their lowest levels of the year, despite rising loan demand. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of lenders found 30-year fixed rate loans averaged 4.13 percent, unchanged from the week before.

Mortgage shoppers continue to take advantage of rates that, save for a few months in 2012 and 2013, have never been lower. Even better news is that rates have remained subdued even as the economy strengthens.

The credit card data breaches that are plaguing large parts of the United States continue to cause problems for ordinary cardholders.  Following a series of scams that affected retail giants like Target, federal authorities confirmed tracking the source of a number of compromised credit cards back to Goodwill Industries.

Like many of the other data breaches, investigators believe the window for hackers to compromise accounts dates back into 2013.  There are nearly 3,000 Goodwill stores in operation around the US, but the breach appears to be limited to only certain retail stores.