Today's LIBOR Rates
1 M |
0.31563 |
 |
3 M |
0.47500 |
|
6 M |
0.68794 |
|
1 YR |
1.06438 |
|
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The People Behind LIBOR
Stephen Green, Honorary Chairman of the British Bankers’ Association
February 14, 2009
The author of Serving God? Serving Mammon? expounds on the Biblical warning to not let worship of money replace worship of the Almighty. Sounds like a suitable treatise for a clergyman, which the author Stephen Green is, an ordained priest in the Church of England. However, Mr. Green is not simply a theologian rebuking those who toil in the House of Mammon. He is also one of the world’s leading financiers, Group Chairman of HBSC Holdings and Honorary Chairman of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), the source of the LIBOR index.
Born November 7, 1948, Stephen Green is the husband of Janian and father of Ruth and Suzie. Mr. Green attended Lancing College and Oxford University, and received a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his professional life in government as a member of the Ministry of Overseas Development. In the late 1970s, he joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., performing work in Europe, the Mideast and North America. In the early 1980s, he began with The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, working first in corporate planning before taking over the development of the bank’s global treasury operations by mid-decade.
In the early 1990s, Mr. Green became Group Treasurer of HSBC Holdings, the London-based banking group founded in 1990 from The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, overseeing global treasury and capital markets businesses. In 1998, he became Executive Director, in charge of investment banking, private banking and asset management. In subsequent years, he rose to Group Chief Executive and Group Chairman. In 2006, Mr. Green became Honorary Chairman of the BBA.
Mr. Green is acutely aware of the BBA’s crucial role in the current financial crisis, as his remarks in a recent BBA annual report attest:
“The current crisis is, of course, the overriding issue for every member of the BBA, and will shape our way forward. Whilst no one can accurately predict when it will end, none of us believes it will be soon. The BBA must take stock of the lessons of this experience and the many questions it poses for banks and regulators alike.”
The best insight regarding his leadership vision may come from his book, Serving God? Serving Mammon?:
“But the markets – flawed as they are, like every other human structure – can be used to contribute to human development. Being there also creates opportunities: to show an integrity that loves others as ourselves and treats them as ends rather than means; and to use the resources we are given as effective stewards should.”
Stephen Green, Anglican priest, global bank leader, ultimate authority over LIBOR, the world’s most important financial gauge.