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Need To Manipulate Markets? Just Email The Bank Of England At hammer@bankofengland.co.uk
Meet Martin "The Hammer" Mallett, chief currencies dealer at the Bank of England in 2007, and, as WSJ reports, recipient of emails that were part of an alleged campaign to rig benchmark interest rates, according to evidence presented in a London trial Wednesday. Remarkably, as we have detailed extensively, the emails were sent out with daily suggestions for where a variety of banks should set Libor. Mallett was later fired for what the central bank described as "serious misconduct," although the bank said his departure wasn’t directly related to the currencies-rigging investigation.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, Martin Mallett, who at the time was the chief currencies dealer at the Bank of England, was among a couple dozen recipients of emails sent in 2007 by brokers allegedly working at the behest of former bank trader Tom Hayes. The recipients were blind carbon-copied on the messages...
In the emails, the brokers sent out daily suggestions for where a variety of banks should set the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. Mukul Chawla, the prosecutor trying Mr. Hayes, said those emails were used in an attempt to skew interest rates for the benefit of Mr. Hayes, at the time a trader in Tokyo at UBS AG.
Mr. Mallett, nicknamed “The Hammer,” was sent the emails at his hammer@bankofengland.co.uk address.
Mr. Mallett left the Bank of England amid an investigation into attempted manipulation of foreign-exchange markets. He was fired for what the central bank described as “serious misconduct,” although the bank said his departure wasn’t directly related to the currencies-rigging investigation. Mr. Mallett, who couldn’t immediately be reached Wednesday, hasn’t previously commented.
A Bank of England spokesman had no immediate comment.
It is unclear why Mr. Mallett was receiving the emails. There is no indication that Mr. Mallett was involved in the alleged Libor manipulation by Mr. Hayes and his brokers.
Mr. Chawla said Wednesday that Mr. Hayes’s employer, UBS, arranged special payments—or “kickbacks”—to the brokers for their assistance.
UBS pleaded guilty to Libor manipulation in 2012.
Mr. Hayes pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, but hasn’t had the chance to present his defense to the jury. He previously told The Wall Street Journal that “this goes much, much higher than me.”
News organizations covering Mr. Hayes’s trial aren’t currently allowed to report on the identities of the brokers or their employers.
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But just keep believing that markets are efficient and there's no rigging... so we leave you with one rather notable comment from the emails and chatrooms of this rigging scandal...
"if you aint cheating, you aint trying.”
That seems to sum up our new normal perfectly.
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CB's = Den of thieves.
How does the Federal Reserve and Treasury not know this is happening? Are they idiots or complicit.
DOJ should investigate both.
As usual, the problem here is a lack of oversight. If we'd made sure that smart, objective and ethical government regulators were overseeing the libor fixings, it would have been near impossible for this to occur. We also need to make sure that our regulators are well paid - in many cases we should be paying them more than the banks are paying. We simply will not attract the best government regulatory talent if we do not offer due compensation.
We just need people that give a shit. If more money makes one care, we are all screwed. Nothing personal but this is the typical government answer, these days, screw up and ask for more money. You wouldn't want me as a supervisor.
Personally I think we need a new Czar to oversee the markets. Somebody hard working and ethical like Jamie Dimon or Lloyd Blankfein.
Thinking something similiar (w/o sarc) as you posted. Find the right person to oversee the inspector generals of both the FED/Treasury and do an internal review on how this was missed with weekly reports to President and posted concurrently on the WH webpage. At the end the President executes an exeutive order on the fix with cost coming from existing budgets, reshifting priorties. Cost for the review would also come from current budgets of FED/Treasury. DOJ at the ready. Congress would hopefully be under public pressure to enact necessary legislation for a permanent fix.
Congress isn't going to do anything. They're completely owned by those very people whom you suggest they would set up regulation over. As an aside, if they send Mallett to jail, will it be "Hammer time"?
https://youtu.be/z5X5zh00rdg
So much for... U can't touch this.
When you start involving other people as in "this goes much, much higher than me" - sleep with one eye open while you have eye's...
But they work directly for Satan, whose world this is. Just ask Lloyd Blankfein. He is doing the work of his god.
Mr Mallet was thrown under the proverbial TBTF bus.
Naturally Mr Phelps, should you or your impossible mission team...
"Martin "The Hammer" Mallett"
I'll bet he gave himself that nickname. Phoney-baloney corrupt douchebags always do.
perhaps, and yet... an employee at the venerable Bank Of England, the "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street", with an email account after his... nickname?
I still maintain that the fabric of reality is quite thin, in some places
That's how you know he made it up himself. It's not his nickname, it's his "brand". Trust me on this. He's a douchebag, beginning to end.
you mean "Fabulous Fab" was a self-made nick, too? omg, all my illusions are crumbling. the "masters of the universe" are all petty souls with even smaller... mallets
"Martin "The Hammer" Mallett"
I'll bet he gave himself that nickname. Phoney-baloney corrupt douchebags always do.
Maybe, or maybe that's the tool he prefers when he is dispatching his prostitutes.
I don't know the Mallet --> Hammer progression reeks of some sort of Freudian bankster compensation issue.
He's the text book definition of a douche, with a swollen ego: a mallet calling himself "hammer"...
~"I'll bet he gave himself that nickname. Phoney-baloney corrupt douchebags always do."~
Yeah, but consider his choices. He could have been "mullet". Or worse, he could have become "mullet-mullet".
Spoofing happening in the Sept long bond. Been going on for the past 2 days. 300 contracts show, then disappear over and over again.
I foresee a nail gun in the hammer's future.
Damn. Better post than mine.
yes
Lol.... you know, unlike the stock market which only goes straight up, these things tend to ebb and flow.
Zerohedge front runs again....but really the wall street journal deserves a Pulitzer prize for this.....keep digging journalists some of us need you.
For finding out that bankers are corrupt? That's a little like shooting fish in a barrel.
I did a thousand word report on how water is wet and I didn't get a Pulitzer. WTF? I want my trophy too damn it!
Why not just hang up heads of CB and main shareholders.
It's...it's...it's HAMMER TIME!!
He said while walking into White's for happy hour...
Much like most financial gaming, he does not pass Go and collect a bonus. Oh wait, he has a get out jail free insider card, ok so he does go onto a higher paying job with lucrative bonuses.
To: hammer@bankofengland.co.uk
Sir,
I am glad to inform you that your guillotine has been reserved.
Your will have a seaside view upon placement in the lunette. and your basket will be padded with white chrysanthemums.
Please let us know if we can be of any other service to you.
Thank you,
The people and victims of your plunder.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
"He [Mr. Hayes] previously told The Wall Street Journal that “this goes much, much higher than me"
I believe him. As for Martin Mallett/BoE, I have said from Day One that the BoE was up to its neck in Libor rigging and currency rigging since then. But, as always, the small people will carry the can while the top brass retire on fat taxpayer funded pensions. Was it ever any different?
The word Libor sends my blood pressure up x10. Poor Mrs Atomizer was nearly in tears over my meltdown that day. We joke about Libor vs Lehman, Bear Sterns. She always tells me that I was completely out of my mind during Libor crisis.