Barclays scandal reaches other UK banks

In a memo to the Barclays staff, the bank’s executive committee said a dozen of rival banks are expected to be drawn into the scandal which has rocked their bank, reported Reuters.

“As other banks settle with authorities, and their details become public, and various governments' inquiries shed more light, our situation will eventually be put in perspective”, said the bank’s executive committee in the memo.

This comes as the Bank of England’s deputy governor, Paul Tucker, has already said that the Barclays scandal is just the tip of the iceberg for City corruption. Tucker told British MPs that greedy bankers may have been rigging the figures across dozens of other markets.

Barclays was fined £290 million by US and UK authorities after it emerged that the London-based lender had manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).

Libor is a measure of how much banks charge each other for loans, is set through regular submissions to the British Bankers' Association, and forms the basis of lending rates throughout the world

Meanwhile, in the memo, Barclays top executives have rejected speculations that the bank will sell or spin off its investment bank or reform its strategies.

“Our strategy and business model were right for Barclays before recent events, and they remain right for Barclays now”, they said.

ISH/HE