I understand that (though my understanding of this particular situation is less deep than that of the US banking crisis). It's also my understanding that LIBOR is used to determine rates for municipal bonds, consumer loan rates (including loans insured by government), and other types of debt that do impact taxpayers and consumers. The LIBOR is a baseline...manipulating it manipulates the entire lending market in the UK. That's illegal and unethical and screws a bunch of people over and compromises the integrity of every bank that participates. (At least, that is my understanding of it, but I'd never heard the word LIBOR until two days ago.)