The chairman of Barclays has stepped down amid a widening scandal over manipulating the bank's lending rates in 2008 and 2009.
Last week, Barclays was fined 450 million U.S. dollars by British and U.S. regulators after the bank admitted to purposely manipulating key interest rates to benefit its own bottom line.
Its chairman resigned on Monday, saying the scandal has "dealt a devastating blow" to the bank's reputation.
Authorities are also investigating other banks for alleged wrongdoing in the interest-rate-setting process.
The rate at the center of the scandal, Libor, is currently set based on submissions from a number of the world’s largest banks about how much it would cost them to raise money in the capital markets.
Such benchmarks are used to help determine the borrowing costs for 750 trillion U.S. dollars worth of financial products, including mortgages, credit cards and student loans.

Reporter : sojungpark@arirang.co.kr