MPs to quiz defiant Diamond today after bank exit

MPs will interrogate Bob Diamond today after the controversial Barclays boss became the highest profile scalp of the rate rigging scandal.

Yesterday the American sensationally resigned from a job which experts estimate has made him £120m in just seven years, having previously insisted he would stay.

He was followed out of the door by Barclays’ chief operating officer Jerry del Missier as the bloodbath on the board continued.

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Barclays is at the centre of a storm over banking ethics following a £290m fine by UK and United States regulators for attempting to fix the key interbank lending rate.

Nearly £3bn has been wiped off the bank’s market value since news of the Libor-fixing affair broke.

Mr Diamond, who was once dubbed the “unacceptable face of banking” by Lord Mandelson, remained defiant in his resignation statement.

“I am deeply disappointed that the impression created by the events announced last week about what Barclays and its people stand for could not be further from the truth,” he said.

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“My motivation has always been to do what I believed to be in the best interests of Barclays. No decision over that period was as hard as the one that I make now to stand down as chief executive.

“The external pressure placed on Barclays has reached a level that risks damaging the franchise – I cannot let that happen.”

The resignations follow that of chairman Marcus Agius, who quit over the affair on Monday, but will stay on to lead the search for a new chief executive.

Mr Diamond, who resigned with immediate effect, will reportedly be asked to give up nearly £20m in unvested shares awarded to him in previous years.

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Alison Carnwarth, chairman of the remuneration committee, will ask Mr Diamond, who was awarded a total of £17.7m in 2011 alone, to hand back the bonuses.

The speculation comes after corporate governance service firm Manifest estimated he had earned at least £120m since joining Barclays’ board in 2005.

Mr Diamond, 60, who was with Barclays for 16 years, is expected to “speak more freely” when he appears before the Treasury Select Committee today now he is no longer at the helm.

He is expected to shed more light on conversations with the Bank of England which led staff to mistakenly believe they were instructed by the central bank to manipulate the Libor, the rate at which banks lend to each other.

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The bank has released details of a phone call in 2008 between Mr Diamond and the Bank of England which ultimately led to some of the rate-rigging actions.

Mr del Missier told staff to lower the interbank lending rate after apparently misunderstanding Mr Diamond’s account of the conversation with the Bank of England’s deputy governor Paul Tucker.

The details were disclosed in documents submitted to the Treasury Select Committee.

Meanwhile, reports claimed Bank governor Sir Mervyn King and Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Adair Turner had encouraged Mr Diamond’s exit.

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