Video: Barclays boss falls on sword - but what’s your view of bankers now?

Reports said Marcus Agius was about to leave the embattled bank, which declined to comment on the suggestions.

The development came as Business Secretary Vince Cable backed calls for a criminal investigation into bankers involved in the affair.

He said the public could not understand why the perpetrators of “what looks like a conspiracy” were allowed to “just walk away”.

The potential for prosecutions arising from the scandal has been downplayed by Treasury sources who point out that there are no criminal sanctions in place for manipulating the inter-bank lending rate, or Libor.

Libor is set on a daily basis by panels of banks and used to help set “swap rates” – the borrowing rate between financial institutions.

It also emerged yesterday that taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) sacked four of its traders at the end of last year over their alleged role in the scandal.

It comes amid speculation over the scale of the rate-rigging probe in the UK and internationally in the wake of the Barclays settlement last Wednesday.

RBS confirmed it is being investigated for manipulating the rates at which banks lend to each other but has not commented on the sackings.

It is understood the sacked men are traders Paul White and Neil Danziger, investment adviser Andrew Hamilton and Tan Chi Min, who used to work for RBS in Singapore.