20 more banks were rigging interest rates: British bankers now facing criminal inquiry over scandal that was kept secret for years
- Barclays shares drop 15 per cent as pressure on Diamond grows
- George Osborne promises new criminal sanctions for market abusers
- RBS, HSBC and Lloyds all named as under investigation as scandal widens
By JAMES CHAPMAN, BECKY BARROW, RUTH SUNDERLAND and ROB DAVIES
Hundreds of bankers across three continents are embroiled in the interest-rate fixing scandal that has left Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond fighting to save his job.
As pressure intensified on Britain’s highest paid banking boss to quit, MPs heard a string of other financial institutions across the world were under investigation.
At least 20 banks are believed to be under suspicion, with growing demands for a criminal investigation.
Barclays’ shares crashed by 15.5 per cent in a day as the implications sank in, wiping £3.7billion from its value, with other banks also hit.
Barclays has been fined £290million after devastating emails revealed that its traders manipulated the London Interbank Rate (Libor) – the rate at which banks lend money to each other.
Chancellor George Osborne told the Commons the exchanges ‘read like an epitaph to an age of irresponsibility’.
