Diamond loses sheen and quits Barclays

Bob Diamond, the Chief Executive of Barclays Bank, has resigned.

The 60-year-old American had faced an orchestrated call for his head in the wake of the rate-rigging scandal which engulfed the bank.

British finance minister George Osborne welcomed the resignation, saying he hoped it was the first step in a new culture of responsible British banking.

That comes on the back of the prime minister’s statement on Monday.

“The British people want to see two things: they want to see bankers who acted improperly punished and they want to know we will learn the broader lessons of what happened in this particular scandal,” David Cameron told the House of Commons.

Barclays’ newly-appointed Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier, long a Diamond lieutenant, has also left the bank.

It is that reported Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius, who announced his intention of standing down on Monday, will now stay in the post to spearhead the search for a new chief executive.

Barclays was fined 360 million euros by UK and US regulators for attempting to manipulate the interbank lending rate, Libor, between 2005 and 2009.

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