Well, this disaster is unfolding quickly. So far, we know that some bad people did some bad things.

Barclays CEO Robert Diamond has resigned. COO Jerry Del Missier has resigned. Chairman of the board and chairman of the British Bankers Association (BBA), the trade organization that oversees LIBOR, Marcus Agius has resigned. And there is talk of some involvement in the rate manipulation by Paul Tucker, a financial stability official at the Bank of England.

Al Jazeera has a great summary of the situation so far, and a bit of what we should expect going forward.

In the wake of the bank rate-rigging scandal, Bob Diamond, Barclays chief executive, announced his resignation from the post with immediate effect, on Tuesday.

In a statement, Diamond, who faced mounting calls to step down, said he made the decision as the external pressure on the bank has reached a level that risks “damaging the franchise”.

Barclays Bank was fined a record $450m last week, for attempting to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, Libor, during the financial crisis between 2005 and 2009. Libor is a measure of how much banks have to pay to borrow from their rival and is worked out every day from estimates submitted by the major banks of their own interbank lending costs.

 

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