A look at this article may suggest that regulators knew what was going as well, but did little. I find it interesting that a few days ago there seemed to be a shift of blame from the banks involved to the traders, now we are seeing the traders saying "he made me do it". If regulators allowed corruption to go on, how much integrity is there in the markets? Aren,t the regulators the ones that help protect the little guys,muppets?

http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-fired-barclays-trader-draws-scrutiny-libor-probe-231453232--sector.html

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Indeed, many of the traders under scrutiny do not believe they did anything wrong because their employers and regulators had some awareness of their activities, the lawyers said. Information released by the New York Fed shows that bank regulators in the United States and Europe knew some banks were submitting low Libor bids during the financial crisis to make institutions appear healthier than they were.

A person familiar with Reich's dismissal from Barclays said that the young trader, who joined Barclays just two years after graduating from Princeton University, was directed by his supervisors to send the emails and they were aware of everything he was doing.

The person, who did not want to be identified, said the practice of sending emails to gather information on future Libor pricing went back to the 1990s at Barclays, long before Reich joined the firm.

"This was systemic at Barclays," said the person.

Barclays declined to comment.