WHEN NEW YORK FED KNEW: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released documents that show it learned five years ago of big banks understating their borrowing costs to manipulate a key interest rate.

GEITHNER PRESSED BRITS: The documents also show that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was then president of the New York Fed, urged the Bank of England to make the rate-setting process more transparent.

UNDER SCRUTINY: The London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, affects interest that people pay on trillions of dollars in loans around the world. Britain's Barclays bank admitted two weeks ago that it had submitted false information to keep the rate low. The bank agreed to pay $453 million in fines.