Barclays Plc chief executive Bob Diamond has quit over an interest rate-rigging scandal
Britain's third-largest bank said that outgoing chairperson Marcus Agius – who himself announced his departure a day earlier – would lead the search for a new executive.
"The external pressure placed on Barclays has reached a level that risks damaging the franchise – I cannot let that happen," Diamond said in a statement.
Agius announced his resignation on Monday in the scandal over traders manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is used worldwide as a benchmark for prices on about $350-trillion of financial products.
But Agius said he would stay in office as long as the search for a new chairperson continued.
Barclays was fined $453-million by US and British authorities, becoming the first bank to settle in an investigation that is looking at more than a dozen others, including Citigroup, UBS and RBS. – Reuters