Post date: Jul 03, 2012 12:41:54 PM
Britain's third-largest bank said that outgoing chairman 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.
Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond stands down over an interest rate-rigging scandal, becoming the highest-profile victim so far in a probe that spans a dozen major banks across the world.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (ITN) - Underfire Barclay's boss Bob Diamond resigned with immediate effect on Tuesday (July 3) amid the latest banking scandal that has rocked the financial world.
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 chairman continued.
Barclays was fined $453 million by U.S. and British authorities, becoming the first bank to settle in an investigation that is looking at more than a dozen others, including Citigroup,