The 'straw' that broke the banks?

Something has got to give in how we interact with the banking sector ...

THE most memorable incidents in earth-changing events are sometimes the most banal. In the rapidly spreading scandal of LIBOR (the London inter-bank offered rate) it is the very everydayness with which bank traders set about manipulating the most important figure in finance.

"This is the banking industry's tobacco moment," says the chief executive of a multinational bank, referring to the lawsuits and settlements that cost America's tobacco industry more than $200 billion in 1998. "It's that big."

— The Economist