On Wednesday, former CEO Robert Diamond appeared before the Treasury Committee of the British House of Commons to explain why Barclays submitted false financial reports. The bank was fined $453 million by U.S. and British regulators last week.
Barclays admitted to submitting inaccurate accounts of how much it spent to borrow from other banks between 2005 and 2009. The bank claims, however, that it did not intentionally attempt to manipulate the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR), a benchmark indicator for global interest rates.
Diamond, the American CEO who oversaw Barclay's purchase of Lehman Brothers U.S. operations in 2008, was the third Barclays officer to resign. Chairman Marcus Agius and Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier also stepped down this week.
The House of Commons is divided along political lines over how to proceed with the Barclays investigation. Labour MPs are calling for a judge-led inquiry similar to the Levenson inquiry into the "News of the World" phone-hacking scandal. Conservative MPs, on the other hand, want a parliament-appointed investigation because they claim it will produce a finding more quickly than a judge-led commission. A vote on how to proceed is scheduled for Thursday.
On Tuesday, Andrew Tryrie, the Conservative MP who heads the Commons Treasury Committee, threatened to cancel Wednesday's hearing out of concern that partisan wrangling would taint the committee's initial inquiry into Barclays.