Ex-Barclays CEO Bob Diamond gives up bonus, but not salary

Bob Diamond, the former chief executive of Barclays, has given up bonuses worth up to £20 million ($31 million), the BBC reported.

Diamond, who quit the bank last week amid an interest rate-fixing scandal, will still receive 12 months' salary, a pension allowance and other benefits.

According to the BBC, all that will add up to more than £2 million, or $3 million.

Diamond "voluntarily offered" to waive his bonus and share awards, Barclays said in a statement.

He's quoted as saying that he hopes the agreement will "help close this chapter and allow Barclays to move forward and prosper."

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British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the decision, Reuters reported, describing it as a sign that Barclays understood the need for "a change in the culture of banking."

Testifying before a British parliamentary committee today, Barclays' outgoing chairman Marcus Agius – who stepped down a day before Diamond – said the bank had been forced to ask the CEO for his resignation after the Bank of England made it clear that "Diamond no longer enjoyed the support of his regulators."

Barclays has admitted that its traders manipulated LIBOR estimates, which indicate the rates at which other banks were lending them money, in an attempt to rig interest rates first for profit and later to cover up financial difficulties.

Britain's Conservative chancellor, George Osbourne, has suggested that members of the former, Labour government pressured Barclays to lie about its borrowing costs during the financial crisis, according to The Independent. 

However, the Bank of England's deputy director, Paul Tucker, "absolutely" denies those claims, he told lawmakers yesterday.

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