In an episode titled Barclay's Banking Scandal, CBC's The Current interviews a British Labour MP about the Libor Scandal, in which Barclay's (and other banks) rigged the Libor rate, the international interest rate charged for borrowing between banks. Since this involves $800 trillion in loans rigging this rate has cost consumers and taxpayers trillions. The Labour MP notes that 50% of British Conservative funding comes from British banks while, after 18 years out of power, Blair and Labour were willing to have regulators look the other way while this corruption continued. The British Conservatives have cut funding for financial regulator by 35% since returning to power. Blair is now earning $3 million on the board of J P Morgan and is also on the board of a British bank.
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2012/07/04/barclays-banking-scandal/
The Royal Bank of Canada is one of 16 banks involved in setting the Libor rate and their is suspicion that it could be involved in fixing the rate. The NDP needs to demand an inquiry into Canadian banks activity and a Royal Commission if it turns out that the Royal Bank (or other Canadian institutions) were involved in this. It also needs to push for campaign reform to remove corporate (and especially financial institutions - the biggest contributors) funding of parties. They also need to announce that they will ban the movement of people between regulators and the organizations they regulate, especially banks, as this results in a strong conflict of interest that has too often contributed to the failure of regulation.