Hi °C | Lo °C Paul Tucker's appearance in front of the Treasury Select Committee has been enlightening, as much for the way in which the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England interacts with banks he oversees than for the substance of the discussion.
He certainly wasn't holding back, declaring "this is a cesspit" and claiming any market, such as Libor - which is based on submissions, rather than transactions, by banks - needs investigating.
The latter statement shouldn't come as much of a surprise because a trading floor is always going to produce skewed results if it's asked to give a flavour of the market rather than fact.
Talking your book to the Bank of England is a practice which was probably intimated rather than written in stone.
Mr Tucker says he wasn't asked to 'lean on' Barclays to lower its Libor rates and may be suggesting he was misinterpreted by the Barclays executives.
If the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England isn't making himself clear then we really do have a problem.
