A former Barclays executive at the heart of the rate-rigging scandal has walked off with an exit package worth nearly £9 million, sources close to the bank said on Thursday.
Jerry del Missier, who resigned as Barclays' chief operating officer three weeks ago, negotiated a severance deal worth at least £8.75 million in the days before he quit.
The Canadian banker, who followed former chief executive Bob Diamond out of the door, was one of Barclays highest paid executives with a salary and bonus package for 2011 worth £6.7 million plus a further £10.8 million from share awards from previous years.
Former Barclays Bank Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier
Del Missier was dragged into the Libor-fixing affair when it emerged he had told staff to lower rate submissions following a conversation with Diamond about Whitehall fears over Barclays' financial health.
The revelation comes a day after non-executive director and remuneration committee chairman Alison Carnwath stepped down from the board, piling more pressure on the crisis-hit board ahead of its half-year results on Friday.
Del Missier, who worked as the head of Barclay's investment banking arm at the time of the Libor-fixing claims, agreed the pay-off with Marcus Agius, the outgoing chairman of Barclays, in the days before his departure was announced.
Asked by MPs if he was the "fall guy" for Mr Diamond, Del Missier said: "I don't think I'm acting as a fall guy. I've resigned my position with the bank, for the good of the bank. I'm not the fall guy for anything."
Del Missier had told the Treasury select committee he believed the Bank of England alone instructed Barclays to lower Libor submissions.
But Diamond previously told the committee he did not believe the Bank of England instructed the bank to lower the inter-bank lending rate and did not believe he instructed Del Missier to do so.