What we can learn from Barclays

In order for our banks to regain public trust, they need to change their culture, and remember their core purpose — of service to the community, writes Ray Kinsella

BANKING in the UK has been convulsed with a new crisis. The epicentre, for now, is Barclays Bank, and specifically its investment (as opposed to retail) banking activities. The catalyst is the finding, in a report published last week by the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), working with its US regulatory counterparts, that the bank was involved in the manipulation of the data which determines the London inter-bank offered rate (Libor) in the period 2005 to 2009.

The FSA report has led to the resignation of the Barclays chairman and CEO. The CEO, Bob Diamond, had effectively built the investment bank into a global giant. At a presentation before the UK Treasury select committee yesterday, Mr Diamond criticised the “rate rigging” culture as “appalling” in itself and in its effects on the reputations of the great majority of traders.