He set off to work as Chairman of Barclays - but this was no normal day.<br/> <br />The first item on Marcus Agius's agenda was to submit his resignation.<br/> <br />He fell on his sword over the interest rate rigging scandal which last week cost Barclays almost half a billion dollars in fines.<br/> <br />The bank admitted that some of its traders had attempted to manipulate Libor - the London interbank lending rate.<br/> <br />It's used worldwide to set prices on around 350 trillion dollars of derivatives and financial products.<br/> <br />Agius said it was evidence of "unacceptable standards of behaviour within the bank". He also said it had "dealt a devastating blow to Barclays' reputation."<br/> <br />"The buck stops with me," he added, "and I must acknowledge responsibility by standing aside."<br/> <br />But many are asking whether the buck actually stops with Chief Executive Bob Diamond.<br/> <br />He was in charge of BarCap - Barclays investment bank - at the time.<br/> <br />He plans to fight on but faces a grilling from British MPs on Wednesday over the scandal.<br/> <br />The hearing could prove embarrassing to the Bank of England<br/> <br />There are reports Diamond and a BoE deputy had a conversation in 2008 about Libor.<br/> <br />It apparently led some people at Barclays to believe mistakenly the Bank of England had granted permission to submit artificially low Libor estimates.<br/> <br />More than a dozen other banks are being investigated in the long-running investigation by authorities in North America, Europe and Japan.<br/> <br />Citigroup, HSBC, UBS and RBS are among them and more big fines are expected.<br/> <br />Sonia Legg, Reuters.
