Libor, the most important number in international finance, dies at 52

The interest benchmark once underpinned more than $300 trn in financial contracts but was undone after a year long market-rigging scandal came to light

The London Interbank Offered Rate, a number that spent decades as a central force of international finance and was used in setting interest rates on everything from mortgages to student loans, has died after a long battle with regulators. It was 52.

Known as Libor, the interest rate bench mark once underpinned more than $300 trillion in financial contracts but was undone after a yearslong market-rigging scandal came to light in 2008. It turned out that bankers had been coordinating with one another to manipulate the rate by skewing the number higher or lower for their banks’ gain.

Libor could no longer