1996 – Bob Diamond is appointed Chief Executive of Barclays Global Markets.

1997 – In a strategic U-turn, Barclays decides to dismantle its Barclays de Zoete Wedd (BZW) unit, which failed to fulfil the bank’s ambition to make it a top global investment bank and ran into derivatives losses as the emerging markets crisis began.

– Credit Suisse First Boston buys BZW’s equities business. Barclays is left with the rump investment banking unit, which it renamed Barclays Capital.

2002 – Diamond becomes executive director for markets.

2005 – Documents from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the U.S.’s Commodities Futures Trading Regulator (CFTC) will later detail multiple occasions when Barclays traders sought to manipulate the London Interbank Offer Rate (Libor) between 2005 and 2009 while Diamond headed the British bank’s investment banking operations.

2007 – Barclays is trumped in October by a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland after an acrimonious pursuit of Dutch bank ABN AMRO, leaving Diamond keen for a new challenge.

2008 – Barclays refuses aid from the British government during the financial crisis and sells shares to Abu Dhabi and Qatar instead. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund pays 1.4 billion pounds in June for a 6.2 percent stake, and a member of Qatar’s ruling family spends 432 million pounds on a 1.9 percent stake.

– Barclays Capital says in September it has relaunched its U.S. Equity Trading and Research division, following the acquisition for $1.75 billion of the North American investment banking and capital markets businesses of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers.

2009 – Diamond’s pay slumps to 250,000 pounds ($366,500) in 2008 from over 21 million pounds in 2007. He did, however, receive 7.4 million pounds in cash and 22 million pounds’ worth of shares awarded in previous years.

– Barclays completes the sale of its asset management arm to U.S. fund manager BlackRock in December for $15.2 billion.

2011 – Diamond takes over as chief executive on Jan. 1, three months earlier than planned. Diamond takes over from John Varley, who is stepping down after six years as CEO.

– Diamond was paid a bonus of 6.5 million pounds for 2010 when he was head of Barclays Capital.

2012 – The British government orders an independent review into the workings of key lending rates between banks after Barclays is found guilty of manipulating them and fined $453 million.

– Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius resigns on July 2.

– Bob Diamond resigns on July 3. Newly appointed Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier, long a Diamond lieutenant, also resigns.

– Diamond appears before the parliamentary committee probing the scandal on July 4 and says his bank has been unfairly singled out in the scandal. He acknowledged “reprehensible behaviour” among his group’s traders and says he became physically ill when he read of their actions.

Photo by Reuters