TWITTER, GUARDIAN (UK)
LONDON – Former Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, is the financial industry’s new bad guy extraordinaire as public anger mounts against chief banking executives in the Libor scandal. The news Tuesday that he had voluntarily given up his bonus of £20 million ($31 million) was supposed to quiet the outcry, as Diamond said he hoped the decision “will help close this chapter and allow Barclays to move forward and prosper.”
But seeing as Diamond will still walk away with a full 12-month salary of £2 million ($3.1 million) makes such a quiet ending a long shot. Questioned by Members of Parliament on Tuesday, outgoing Barclays chairman Marcus Aigus revealed that Diamond will receive a pension allowance and other benefits on top of his twelve months salary, even though it was suggested that he was only entitled to six months’ pay.
Reaction around the Internet was rapid and raw:
Hearing Bob Diamond is only getting £2m payoff rather than £20m is like hearing someone only peed in your coffee a little rather than a lot.
— Scattergun Bulletin (@ScatterBull) July 10, 2012
Bob Diamond only getting £2mil in compo! Oh dear! My heart bleeds. Don’t be fooled, the rest is coming to him… “indirectly” #Barclays #HoC
— Son of Robespierre (@sonofr) July 10, 2012
Bob Diamond’s going to give up 20 million? That’s pain. Real pain. Poor people don’t know what it’s like to lose that much. I feel faint.
— Not Rupert Murdoch (@RupertMurdochPR) July 10, 2012
This is brilliant! Someone has expressed their creative disgust with #Barclays on the the hire cycles! #diamond twitpic.com/a3txye
— LazarouMonkeyTerror (@lazaroumterror) July 4, 2012
A YouGov poll on Tuesday reported that 55 percent of British people now want a Judge-led inquiry into the Libor scandal. The debate continues as to whether a parliamentary or Judge-led inquiry would be most appropriate.
Transparency International rates Barclays so low on transparency, that we’lll almost certainly never know WHAT Bob Diamond’s real pay off is
— Jon Snow (@jonsnowC4) July 10, 2012
Also on Tuesday, the Guardian reported that Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, was a key player in pushing Diamond should leave his role at Barclays last week.