Libor scandal: former Barclays executive and FSA chairman face MPs

Jerry del Missier faces MPs as will the UK’s top City watchdogs, who will be asked to explain why they failed to take heed of warnings from US regulators. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

3.49pm: Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog. Jerry del Missier, a Canadian, is the latest to be hauled before the Treasury select committee to talk about the Libor rigging scandal. He quit just hours after Bob Diamond, the Barclays chief executive, resigned after the £290m fine hammered the bank’s share price and its reputation. The two men were close at Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm, and del Missier had been promoted only a fortnight ago to chief operating officer for the entire bank.

Del Missier is also caught up in the controversial memo written by Diamond on October 29 2008 after a conversation with Bank of England governor Paul Tucker. Here is the memo.

In the memo Diamond, who then ran BarCap, tells del Missier and the then-chief executive John Varley that Tucker was concerned about the bank’s Libor levels during the crisis and Del Missier interprets the memo as a tacit signal to cut the submission to the Libor panel. Del Missier, who was investigated by the Financial Services Authority but no charges were brought, instructed the bank’s submitters to cut the interest rate. He is likely to be asked why he interpreted Diamond’s memo the way he did and whether or not he had asked Diamond for guidance. [When Diamond was asked at his appearance before MPs he said he could not put himself in Del Missier's shoes.]

The session is scheduled to run from 1600 to 1645 when Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, will appear alongside Andrew Bailey, the FSA’s top banking regulator and Tracey McDermott, the acting head of enforcement (and responsible for the fine).

Turner is likely to face a grilling about when he found out about Libor and crucially why it was Sir Mervyn King, Bank of England governor, who told Barclays that Diamond had to leave and not Turner, whose FSA actually regulates the banks.