Serious Fraud Office investigators are in talks with the City watchdog in Britain over the Barclays rate-rigging scandal that has rocked the banking industry, Chancellor George Osborne said today.

Banking giant Barclays is to pay penalties of £290m to settle claims that it manipulated the interbank lending rate.

Barclays boss Bob Diamond moved to quell a shareholder rebellion today by offering to change the terms of his £2.7m (€3.3m) annual bonus.

UK bank Barclays protected itself against wild swings in the price of complex credit products today by agreeing a US$12.3bn (€8.3bn) deal with former employees.

A division of Barclays which pays pensions to more than 70,000 policyholders a month is to be sold in a deal worth £753m (€950m), it was announced today.

Barclays kept shareholders guessing today over whether it will make a multi-billion pound cash call to bolster its balance sheet.