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Diamond apologises for “reprehensible” trading behaviour

Former Barclays boss Bob Diamond has apologised for the “reprehensible” behaviour of traders who fixed interest rates, but stressed that the bank has been made a scapegoat after admitting to wrongdoing.

Mr Diamond quit earlier this week after the bank agreed to pay £290 million in fines for manipulating interest rates.

Speaking before a parliamentary committee Mr Diamond said: When I read the e-mails from those traders, I got physically ill.

He agreed with calls by the media and politicians for those involved with rigging interest rates to be subject to criminal investigating, stating that they should be “dealt with harshly”.

The exposure of the Libor scandal has quickly come to represent the culture of greed prevalent in the financial industry, following the publication of emails showing traders congratulating each other for fiddling figures.

Diamond was keen to stress that any wrongdoing was “not representative of the firm I love so much”, but expressed concern that “he focus has been on Barclays because they were the first”.

He went on to outline the co-operative attitude the bank have taken with regulators to uncover the practice, stating that “I think it’s a sign of the culture of Barclays that we were willing to be first, we were willing to be fast and we were willing to come out with this.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .