The LIBOR scandal stands out as the most striking failure of private financial standard-setting in the post-crisis era, and thus provides an important case study of the resilience of private authority. Public authorities brought corporate criminal cases against the world’s largest banks, imposed penalties of tens of billions of dollars, and indicted several brokers and bankers. LIBOR’s private administrator was replaced, and the public sector has played a central role in creating and administering new, more robust benchmark interest rates. Neither the transnational nature of the benchmark itself, its users, and the manipulation scheme, nor the fact that the scandal coincided with a financial crisis prevented this reassertion of public authority. The intervention of a different set of public actors—most saliently prosecutors—with different incentives and capabilities is the key factor that explains this outcome, which stands in stark contrast with the hands-off approach to LIBOR governance and reform followed by banking regulators before the crisis. This suggests that involvement of a broader range of public actors can restore the balance between private standard-setting and effective public oversight.