Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond resigned on Tuesday, followed a few hours later by the bank's chief operating officer, in a deepening scandal over the rigging of a key global interest rate. The latest resignations took to three the number of senior Barclays executives to have quit in the last two days.
Diamond and COO Jerry del Missier stepped down the day after Barclays chairman Marcus Agius resigned Monday and amid an intense and deepening political row over standards in the City of London financial sector. Diamond, high-profile and highly paid, caved in to heavy political pressure even though it was thought that he might hang on to his job after Agius took the first wave of outrage by resigning on Monday.
The scandal, which may implicate other international banks and trigger criminal prosecutions, concerns manipulation of the Libor and Euribor interbank lending rates. These benchmark rates play a key role in global markets, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money and serving as a benchmark for contracts. Libor is a flagship London instrument used throughout the world and Euribor is the eurozone equivalent.
US national Diamond added in the statement: "The external pressure placed on Barclays has reached a level that risks damaging the franchise - I cannot let that happen." British finance minister George Osborne welcomed Diamond's resignation. "I think it's the right decision for Barclays. I think it's the right decision for the country. I hope it's a first step towards a new culture of responsibility in British banking," he told BBC radio. Diamond was still due to face questions from British lawmakers on Wednesday over the affair.