big three

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Congressional investigators probing banks' efforts to rig the London interbank offered rate plan to request correspondence between the Federal Reserve and U.S. banks that help "set" the rate.. ''What we're going to do now is expand our inquiry into the domestic banks and see what kind of dialogue began with the Fed and these banks,'' Representative Randy Neugebauer, a Texas Republican and chairman of the oversight and investigations panel of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee said.. Neugebauer intends to request correspondence between the Fed and the three U.S. banks on the Libor-setting panel, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America, according to a congressional official.. The U.S. central bank is drawing more scrutiny from lawmakers critical of its record as a bank regulator after the New York Fed released documents showing it was aware that Barclays underreported borrowing costs in 2008. Neugebauer requested the documents, which were made public July 13.. At least a dozen banks are being investigated and the underreporting of London interbank offered rates is "unacceptable behavior" and the U.S. central bank offered a "substantial response" to address the problem, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington.. The disclosures are "not only very troubling in themselves but they have the effect of undermining public confidence Bernanke said at a Senate Banking Committee," Bernanke said during testimony.. Not only did the Fed know that Barclays was engaging in such unacceptable behavior, But that the three biggest US banks - Citi, Bank Of America, And JPMorgan - had the lowest Libor submissions around the time in question, and one of which is still an indirect ward of the state, not only did the same, but were encouraged by the Fed to cheat...