Libor scandal executive Jerry del Messier to appear before MPs

By SCOTT REID
Published on 16/07/2012 00:00

Britain’s top financial regulator and a former executive caught in the Libor interest rate scandal at Barclays face a grilling today from MPs.

The Treasury select committee will question Jerry del
Missier two weeks after he quit as the banking giant’s chief operating officer.

He was the trusted investment banking lieutenant of Bob Diamond, the Barclays’ chief
executive who stepped down the same day.

Del Missier, who has yet to comment publicly on the matter, is said by Barclays to have misinterpreted a message from Diamond and told the bank’s staff that the Bank of England had sanctioned them submitting lower rates to massage down the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor.

Lord Adair Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, is due to follow del Missier before the committee. He will face questions on the watchdog’s involvement and whether it was tough enough when rate
rigging occurred between 2005 and 2009.