The Fix: How Bankers Lied, Cheated and Colluded to Rig the World's Most Important Number (Bloomberg)

I'm not writing as an expert, merely a fan of these types of books (financial insider books - Michael Lewis types). With that said, I do have some financial background and enjoy learning/reading more about it. For me, this book was great. It does a good job of clarifying that there were many more people and banks involved in the Libor scandal, but this isn't a textbook on the topic. This is a narrative, well written, that brings the reader into the banks and onto the trading floors. It has to focus on something and, an assumption on my part, it is probably easiest to focus on Barclays and on Tom Hayes because of the amount of data and testimony given from both parties. I came away from the book with a much better understanding of Libor and the culture that pervades banks in general, not just Barclays, and the pressure that traders, not just Tom Hayes, face each day. That is what I believe this book is best at. Making such a complicated and specialized field as derivative trading, largely on interest rate swaps, readable and enjoyable for the average person. Also, this is not an indictment against any bank or person, but I felt gives a generally straight forward view of the situation, and allows the reader to form their own opinion. I'm glad I wasn't in the jury for Tom Hayes or the other bankers that have been put on trial because the book clearly describes the lack of oversight and regulation, so how can you really blame someone for taking advantage of that in a culture that forces everyone to try and find a way to do just a little bit better (or a lot, in Hayes' case) than your peers. Especially, as the book points out, it was pervasive in the market at the time, but we probably will never know exactly how pervasive it was.Quick read, kept me interested the whole time. Fantastic overall.

I write as an expert on the topic, but I realise that reviews are for the general public rather than the experts. First, the good stuff: it's a gripping read and the technicalities are pretty well explained at the general public level. There are two completely separate factors of the manipulation (i) traders (and only Tom Hayes is identified here) can profit by the manipulation to generate lottery-win type bonuses, and (ii) much more subtle, during the Crisis, banks had a desperate job to maintain credibility. This was not to ensure profits for themselves, but actually to ensure the survival of the banking system. Lowballing the submissions would play a vital role in this and it was almost certainly part of official policy (Central Bank and, presumably Governments - right around the globe.) This second strand of manipulation is covered in much less detail and only one bank - Barclays - gets featured. The authors do a pretty good job in separating these two factors. The downsides are (i) only Tom Hayes and Barclays are analysed, whereas (a) there were almost certainly other traders doing this and (b) the banking system credibility issue should have been given much wider and more detailed analysis and (ii) the authors seem to be pitching too hard for the sale of movie rights. Every character is introduced with detailed physical descriptions, as if to prompt potential producers to be thinking "Tom Hanks for this role, Angelina Jolie for that one."

The book was very clean and in great condition

The first half of the book had too much detail. Maybe I'm dim, but I couldn't keep it all straight in my head. Probably should have included some kind of flowchart and glossery. However, the last half was a well documented cliffhanger. The last half gets five stars....

This book is light reading. It does enhance the reader's knowledge of the "real world" financial environment with all of its complexity and human nuances.

An excellent narrative of how LIBOR was manipulated and how the main perpetrator was brought to book. Whilst the banks and the inter-dealer brokers involved paid heavy fines for their complicity, most of the individuals who were part of the scheme escaped punishment.

Very interesting reading. Had no idea LIBOR was so easily manipulated and effects so many different financial devices. I thought the authors approach was fair and kept the story moving along in at an interesting pace.

Takes you into the dealer's world. Now it's time for someone to expose the manipulation of the gold market especially the events of April 2013.

I was fascinated by this story after reading an piece by the authors in Bloomberg Businessweek. The book obviously provides a lot more details and didn’t disappoint.

Interesting true story of the LIBOR fix to rig markets for large profits. This could easily be made into an exciting movie.

One may assume that Libor fixing scandal was mainly from cheating traders ... only partly true; the book als points to lack of governance, lack of attention from supervisors and regulators and some laissez-faire from Bank of England and the FSA/FCA. Very complete and well documented. I came out with one question: why is there only ONE guy in jail?

The authors are to be commended for not only penning a highly readable and informative book but unlike many others have kept it succinct, keeping only to the subject without padding it out unnecessarily. So many authors are obsessed with the belief that unless their book is 300 pages plus it is substandard and fill the pages with unnecessary verbiage to achieve this erroneous objective. Well done Messrs Vaughan and Finch for avoiding this tedious pitfall.Tom Hayes was undoubtedly guilty of attempts to manipulate the badly conceived and amateurishly managed Libor, but so were many, many others not least were Paul Tucker, then Deputy Governor of The Bank of England, Bob Diamond then CEO at Barclays, and a host of very senior board members, executives and staff in UBS and other banks. And yet out of this myriad of perpetrators of the Libor fraud only fairly lowly placed Tom Hayes was charged and convicted, receiving a brutally savage sentence of 14 years imprisonment. Several other small bit players were charged but acquitted. Not a single senior person from The Deputy Governor downwards was charged. Strange that!A very good book that explains the mysterious Libor machinations, and tracks the events leading up to Tom Hayes's conviction but it does leave one very angry at the ability of those really responsible for this massive fraud, to wriggle out of and escape any blame or consequences.

Très bien écrit comme un thriller, l'impression générale qui ressort du livre est1. le trading est un métier invivable…2. … sans aucune valeur économique ajoutée3. les gagnants ne peuvent gagner que parce qu’ils trichent sans scrupule et font prendre des risques impossibles à leur employeur4. l’épilogue du livre est démoralisant5. et, dans les années 2000s, les banques apparaissent comme totalement corompues.