Barclays ex-exec says he believed Bank of England approved false lower LIBOR submissions

LONDON – A former executive of Barclays who has been blamed for ordering subordinates to submit false interest rates in 2008 says he believed his action had been sanctioned by the Bank of England.

Jerry del Missier told a Parliamentary committee on Monday that he drew that conclusion from a conversation with the bank’s chief executive, Bob Diamond. He insisted that he believed he had done nothing wrong.

Del Missier resigned as Barclays’ chief operating officer on July 3, hours after Diamond resigned.

Barclays has been fined US$453 million by U.S. and British agencies for submitting false reports of its interbank borrowing rates, data which goes into the calculation of a key market index, the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR).