LONDON, July 3: Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond resigned on Tuesday, followed a few hours later by the bank's chief operating officer, in a deepening scandal over the rigging of key interest rates.

The latest resignations took to three the number of senior Barclays executives to have quit in the last two days.

Diamond and chief operating officer Jerry del Missier stepped down the day after Barclays chairman Marcus Agius resigned amid an intense and deepening political row over standards in the City of London financial sector.

Diamond and Missier, who only took up his new job last month, were both previously senior figures at the firm’s investment banking arm Barclays Capital.

Agius told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that Missier had been “the most senior officer (at Barclays) who gave instructions to lower Libor rates and that obviously puts him in a very difficult position.”

Agius insisted this move by Missier, when he was president of Barclays Capital, was caused by a “misunderstanding” after a telephone call between Diamond and Bank of England (BoE) deputy governor Paul Tucker. The overall scandal, which may implicate other international banks and trigger criminal prosecutions, concerns manipulation of the Libor interbank lending rate.

Libor is a flagship London instrument used throughout the world and Euribor -- whose manipulation has also been investigated -- is the eurozone equivalent. These benchmark rates play a key role in global markets, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money and serving as a benchmark for contracts.

Diamond was due to face questions from British lawmakers on Wednesday over the affair. High-profile and highly paid, Diamond eventually caved in to heavy political pressure even though it was thought that he might hang on to his job after Agius resigned on Monday.

Some analysts said that this was intended to shield Diamond, seen by some as a genius with the golden touch and others as an overpaid and overbearing banker.

Agius said he would leave only after successfully leading the search for a new chief executive to replace Diamond, who quit after 18 months in the top post.—AFP