Barclays Chief Executive Resigns Amid Libor Scandal

Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond resigned Tuesday, the latest head to roll after the London-based bank was fined $453 million last week by U.S. and U.K. banking authorities for attempting to manipulate inter-bank lending rates, according to the BBC.

The record fine was imposed last week after Barclays admitted that its traders had attempted to fix Libor, the global rate for bank-to-bank lending that underpins some $350 trillion worth of contracts worldwide. False reports of the interest rate primarily originated with traders working in the investment banking division of the company between 2005 and 2009, headed at that time by Diamond, the Associated Press reports.

The Mitt Romney presidential campaign wasted no time in announcing that Diamond will no longer co-host a London fundraiser for the former governor. The July 27 fundraising dinner will go on without Diamond, reports Bloomberg.

The chief executive’s decision to step down comes on the tail of Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius’ announcement yesterday that he plans to leave the company. CNN anticipates that the resignations are just the tip of the iceberg, however, noting that seven other banks are implicated, though not named, in documents released in the investigation.

Since the scandal broke last week, Diamond has faced a storm of pressure to step down, including calls for his resignation from Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Labor Party leader Ed Miliband.

Diamond’s resignation doesn’t get him off the hook, though. He’ll appear before a panel of Members of Parliament tomorrow, where he’ll likely face questioning on how much he knew of the attempts to manipulate Libor, the Financial Times predicts. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office will decide whether to push criminal charges within the next month.