Business

Barclays chair exits in scandal

The top head at Barclays is about to roll.

Marcus Agius, the British bank’s much-maligned chairman, is expected to resign today over a price-fixing scandal, according to reports.

Complaints from investors and politicians have mounted in recent days about Barclays’ role in a scheme to manipulate interest rates charged for interbank lending. Last week, the bank disclosed it will pay $453 million to British and US regulators to settle the charges.

“The buck stops with me,” Agius will say in an announcement due this morning, according to the Financial Times’ Web site yesterday.

Agius, who had resisted calls for his resignation for days, meanwhile praises in the announcement the bank’s “excellent executive team.”

That team includes Chief Executive Bob Diamond, grilled last week by British officials over his role in the price-fixing scandal, which included communications in 2008 with Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker.

Some had speculated that Diamond, who has also become a target for outraged politicians and investors, might take the bullet over the scandal this week. But Agius’ departure could be a signal that Barclays’ board still backs him.

Over the weekend, British Prime Minister David Cameron ratcheted up the pressure by calling for an independent investigation into how interbank lending rates were set.

According to probers, Barclays had submitted artificially low bids in a government-run process that sets the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor.