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King remains tight-lipped over role in Diamond exit

by Sarah Miloudi on Jul 10, 2012 at 15:15

Mervyn King has remained tight-lipped over the role he played in the resignation of Bob Diamond.

'I'm not going to comment on individuals,' the Bank of England governor said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 today. 'One of the roles of the governor is to have conversations that remain private.'

His comments came as outgoing Barclays chair Marcus Agius told politicians King (pictured) had played a decisive role in the departure of Diamond last week.

In a grilling by the Treasury Select Committee Agius claimed King called a meeting of the Barclays senior directors, during which it warned that Diamond no longer had the support of regulators.

Agius also said the bank was warned about the public's perception of its use of complex tax rules and that its relationship with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) had become 'strained'. 'We are moving heaven and earth to put things right,' Agius said.

Towards the start of the session, which kicked off at 10am, Agius revealed Diamond has agreed to give up his deferred bonuses, worth around £20 million.

While it is no secret that other lenders are involved, TSC chair Andrew Tyrie said he was deeply concerned about the extent of Libor manipulation. He said: 'I dread to think what's going to happen when we get the rest of the reports from regulators.'

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11 comments so far. Why not have your say?

surprised.com

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That man should be sainted. It's great to see that instead of going to prison he is only going to walk away with £2 million. Heart of gold.

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Good old Bob.

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truly, a bob in the rough......

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I wish someone would give me 2M to b****r off.......any takers?

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As somebody who taught the lending paper for the Chartered Institute of Bankers for about seven years (1985-92) I am still struggling to understand how you can mess up one bank's loan book never mind the whole financial system. There are simple words to describe what has happened; fraud, false accounting, greed, incompetence & a complete failure of regulation as instigated by the light-touch of Gordon Brown.

Given that Bob & his crew fudged the Dollar LIBOR rate he must run foul of the USA's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, rather like the Murdoches. That £20m would have helped to defray the legal fees.

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I taught the Lending paper for the Chartered Institute of Bankers for seven years (1984-1991). I am still trying to understand how you destroy the loan book of one bank never mind busting the entire system. There are simple words to describe what has happened; words like fraud, false-accounting, incompetence, greed, audit failure and a lack of competent supervision.

I'm sorry about Bob's lost perks, that £20m would have helped defray the legal fees wnen the Yanks start proceedings under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. After all it was $ LIBOR that was fudged not £ LIBOR

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I think he should have taken it and given it to Bill Gates & Warren Buffet or someone who appears to know what they are doing with the money.

Otherwise I fear it will end up in the hands of wasteful politicians and their cronies or wasteful quango or other wasteful, useless, unqualified, quasi non governmental hangers on..

(have just received my "fscs" bill which could explain the bad mood)

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Wouldn't it be wonderfully ironic if George Osborne DID have evidence that Ed Balls had tried to manipulate the LIBOR rate, but his source was a News International phone tap carried out since the Leveson Inquiry started....

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A fraudster, Thomas Scragg, gets 17 years for a £34m fraud scam ... Bob Diamond gets £2m and walks free ...

A serious societal problem which the rich exploit ... can someone please explain to me how this works in a civilised, democratic society???

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S-ville

Jul 10, 2012 at 16:03

Bill M - it's an inevitable result of insufficient regulation, which the rich are in a far better position to exploit than the rest of us lesser mortals.

In the same way people used to say that socialism wouldn't work because it ran contrary to human nature, well unfettered, unregulated capitalism doesn't work either.

The likes of Mr Diamond want (and have had) power without responsibility.

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