Diamond Exit Raises Speculation Of Investment-Bank Split

Bloomberg reports: When Robert Diamond took over Barclays Plc (BARC)’s shrinking securities unit in 1997 he vowed to turn the business into a leading global firm.  Fifteen years later, his success in creating a top investment bank, whose profit reached $4.7 billion in 2011, may hasten its split from the lender after the London-based bank admitted to trying to rig global interest rates. Diamond quit as Barclays’s chief executive officer yesterday and hours later Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier followed.

The departure of Diamond may presage a reorganization of Barclays after regulators in the U.K. and the U.S. pointed to the need for change at the company. The interest rate debacle is intensifying political pressure in the U.K. to build higher walls between banks’ consumer lending and investment-banking divisions to protect savers and taxpayers…….

Read all about it at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-03/diamond-exit-raises-speculation-of-investment-bank-split.html