EU Finance Regulator on Avaaz — 'Put bankers behind bars'

Avaaz has started a brand new petition, asking the European Commission and the EU Parliament to introduce strong regulation against market abuse, including criminal sanctions for bankers.

Recently big banks have been caught out in a massive scam to rig global interest rates. Millions of people have been ripped off on their student loans, mortgages and more. Barclays Bank recently got caught out manipulating the key interbank lending rate. What did they get for this? They got fined. A recent scandal emerged in Spain, where Rodrigo Rato, ex-IMF Chief and ex-head of Bankia, is being brought up on fraud and criminal charges for his part in bringing Bankia to its knees, causing the need for a huge bailout to save the bank. Now the EU finance regulator, Michel Barnier is standing up to the powerful bank lobby and is championing reform that could put bankers behind bars for their fraudulent behavior. He says that if the EU starts this, the idea could quickly spread throughout the world. However, banks are lobbying hard against this, and a massive surge of people power is needed to drive these reforms through. Barnier needs 1 million people to stand with him in the next 3 days. This would give him the momentum he needs to face down the banking lobby and push governments to bring reform. The petition calls on the European Commission, EU Parliament and member states as follows: "As citizens concerned about the wave of banking crises that are affecting our economies and our livelihoods, we call on you to take action to ensure that bankers are held responsible. This can only be done by introducing strong legislation against market abuse, including criminal sanctions for bankers who ride roughshod over regulations or break our laws." So far, at the time of writing, 109,389 have signed the petition. Add your name to this push to put these crooks behind bars where they belong.