LONDON — The Bank of England’s deputy governor, Paul Tucker, right, strongly denied suggestions Monday that government ministers had pressured him to encourage banks to manipulate interest rates in a scandal gripping Britain’s financial sector.
Barclays has been fined more than $450 million for its part in manipulating Libor, the interest rate that is the global benchmark for transactions worth trillions of dollars. Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond resigned last week.
Softly beating the surface of a table with both hands for emphasis, he flatly denied — repeating, “absolutely no” several times — that any minister urged him to influence Barclays or other banks over the rates. He said he was unaware of any rigging.
“This was a cesspit,” he said of the Libor manipulation. Reuters; Bloomberg News photo
