British Parliament Bashes Bob Diamond In LIBOR Report

The British parliament criticized former Barclays Plc (London: BARC) CEO Bob Diamond in a report released Saturday, saying that he failed to fully disclose the bank’s illegal practices during testimony on the LIBOR scandal.

Diamond's testimony “fell well short of the standard that Parliament expects,” the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee said. It said the culture of Barclays was far less ethical than the behavior touted in the bank's public appearances, and despite three reports of concerns to the firm's compliance department over LIBOR, the executives were not told of any problems. The failure of senior management to learn of the misdeeds would have required "an extraordinary, but conceivably plausible, series of misunderstandings and miscommunications," according to the report.

The committee called for more banking regulations, including higher fines for non-cooperative firms and stronger governance from the Bank of England. “Urgent improvements, both to the way banks are run, and the way they are regulated, [are] needed if public and market confidence is to be restored," said Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, in a statement.

Barclay's Diamond, chairman Marcus Agius and COO Jerry del Missier, all resigned from Barclays last month, after news broke that Barclays rigged the key LIBOR lending standard. The bank accepted a $450 million settlement with U.S. and British regulators.

“I am disappointed by, and strongly disagree with, several statements by the Treasury Select Committee,” Diamond said in a statement released on Saturday. “There is little dispute that Barclays was both aggressive in its investigation of this matter and engaged in its cooperation with the appropriate authorities.”

Barclays closed up 3.57 percent to 192.85 British pence on Friday.