巴克萊董事長昨日辭職成功?

Marcus Agius is poised to resign as chairman of Barclays yestoday, in the hope that his departure will take the sting out of mounting criticism from politicians and shareholders over the bank's role in the price-fixing of interbank lending rates.

馬庫斯•阿吉斯(Marcus Agius)準備於今日辭去巴克萊(Barclays)董事長職務，以緩解政界人士和公司股東對該行在銀行間拆借利率操縱案中所扮角色的不斷高漲的批評聲浪。

Mr Agius has been sharply criticised by investors over several issues during his five-year tenure as chairman – notably in 2008 when they felt he failed to protect their shareholder pre-emption rights by raising emergency financing from the Middle East, then by pushing through last year's generous pay deal for chief executive Bob Diamond.

阿吉斯在五年任期中因多個問題受到公司股東的尖銳批評--2008年阿吉斯從中東引入緊急援助資金的做法被公司股東認爲是未能保障其優先購股權，此外，去年阿吉斯還力主通過了爲首席執行官鮑勃•戴蒙德(Bob Diamond)提供的慷慨薪酬方案。

It is unclear whether the bank has a firm replacement yet lined up, though Sir Michael Rake, the bank's senior independent director, may take over as chairman himself on a temporary basis, or alternatively ask Sir John Sutherland, the former Cadbury chairman, or Alison Carnwath, who heads the remuneration committee, to assume the role, according to people close to the situation.

目前尚不清楚巴克萊是否已確定董事長的繼任人選，但知情人士表示，該行資深獨立董事利萬基爵士(Sir Michael Rake)可能會暫時接任董事長，曾任吉百利(Cadbury)董事長的約翰•薩瑟蘭爵士(Sir John Sutherland)和巴克萊董事會薪酬委員會主席埃裏森•卡恩沃思(Alison Carnwath)也是可能人選。

Barclays last week paid a record £290m to UK and US regulators for submitting fraudulent bids to the process for setting the London interbank offered rate, which is the reference point for $360tn in contracts worldwide. The bank admitted that its traders sought to manipulate the rates and that it also understated its borrowing costs during the financial crisis because it believed other banks were doing the same.

巴克萊上週向歐美監管當局支付了創紀錄的2.9億英鎊罰款，原因是它在參與設定倫敦銀行間同業拆借利率(Libor)的過程中提交虛假報價，而Libor是全球規模共計360萬億美元的合約的基準利率。巴克萊承認其交易員存在利率操縱行爲，並在金融危機中低報了自身借款成本，原因是認爲其他銀行也有同樣行爲。

Mr Diamond is already set to face a grilling over the scandal by parliament's Treasury select committee on Wednesday, and new details emerged yesterday about his personal involvement with setting of the Libor rate.

戴蒙德將於週三就利率操縱醜聞接受英國下議院財政部特別委員會(House of Commons Treasury Select Committee)的質詢。此外，昨日還有關於戴蒙德個人參與Libor設定過程的新細節傳出。

In 2008, Mr Diamond spoke to Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, about Barclays' submissions to the Libor process. When word of that conversation was passed down, managers at the bank "mistakenly" believed they had been granted permission to submit artificially low estimates.

2008年，戴蒙德向英國央行(BoE)副行長保羅•塔克(Paul Tucker)彙報了巴克萊在Libor設定過程中的報價情況。當有關此次談話的消息在巴克萊內部傳開時，該行管理層"錯誤地"認爲自己已獲准提交人爲壓低的拆借利率報價。

The conversation is described without names in the official UK and US settlement documents from last week's fine. They say a senior BoE official asked a senior Barclays manager on October 29 2008, why Barclays' Libor submissions were higher than those of other banks.

上週英國與美國監管當局的對巴克萊罰款和解文件中隱去了此次談話雙方的姓名。文件稱，英國央行某高級官員於2008年10月29日詢問巴克萊某高管稱，爲什麼巴克萊的Libor報價高於其他銀行。

Three people familiar with the contents confirmed that the call was between Mr Diamond and Mr Tucker, who heads the BoE's financial stability arm.

三位知情人士證實，電話會談的雙方是戴蒙德和英國央行主管金融穩定事務的副行長塔克。

After their conversation, lower-level Barclays' officials told the employees who submitted the bank's Libor estimates to lower their bids because they "believed mistakenly that they were operating under an instruction from the Bank of England (as conveyed by senior management) to reduce Barclays' Libor submissions", according to the UK Financial Services Authority's description of what happened.

根據來自英國金融服務管理局(FSA)的描述，級別較低的巴克萊管理人員在此次談話後指示該行負責提交Libor估計值的員工壓低報價，因爲他們"錯誤地認爲來自英國央行的指令（由高管層傳達）要求巴克萊下調Libor報價"。