Like many of the City's ways, LIBOR is something of an anachronism, a throwback to a time when many bankers within the Square Mile knew one another and when trust was more important than contract.
This Chinese company had been doing business with this American company for over four years, and during these four years, the Chinese company thought there was mutual trust and therefore did not ask for the contract to be in writing.
That raises an interesting question of whether a national agency is required to help contract for those services, with praise for the way in which the Scottish Futures Trust has used centrally-focussed expertise to help councils and health boards procure their capital projects.
The widely watched SPDR Gold Trust ( GLD) dropped to its lowest level since last August, and the nearby crude oil contract was down close to 2% during the day.