Heat on chief in bank scandal

Pressure grew on Barclays Plc chief executive Bob Diamond to resign as Britain launched an inquiry today into a market-rigging scandal, saying a ‘‘culture that flourished in the age of irresponsibility’’ among bankers had to end.

Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius resigned on Monday, saying ‘‘the buck stops with me’’, as the scandal over manipulating Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) interest rates claimed its first major scalp.

But his departure did not take the heat off Diamond, who ran Barclays’ investment banking arm when the rate rigging took place, drawing a record fine for the lender last week in a scandal likely to involve many more banks.

‘‘He must resign. He’s got to go,’’ said John Mann, an opposition Labour member of a parliamentary committee which this week will question Agius and Diamond.

Anger with the culture of bankers in London, a world financial capital and major part of the British economy, crossed the political divide, with Conservative finance minister George Osborne outlining the parliamentary inquiry.

‘‘The behaviour of some in the financial services has damaged the reputation of an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people and is vital to [Britain’s] economic prosperity,’’ Osborne said. ‘‘It’s time to deal with the culture that flourished in the age of irresponsibility and hold those who allowed it to do so to account.’’

Barclays has admitted that some of its traders tried to manipulate the Libor, which is used worldwide as a benchmark for prices on about $350 trillion of derivatives and other financial products across a range of currencies and loan durations.