Bob Diamond was 'utterly depressed'

Marcus Agius described the dramatic moment when he was summoned by the Governor of the Bank of England and told Bob Diamond had to go.

Mr Agius said he received a message from the Bank advising him that Sir Mervyn King wanted to see him and the most senior independent Barclays board member Sir Michael Rake.

"On Monday morning [it was conveyed to us] that the Governor wanted to see [us] at 6pm that evening. There it was made very plain to us that Bob Diamond no longer enjoyed the support of his regulators.

"[Sir Mervyn made clear he had] no power to direct us but told us in absolute terms what the situation was. You can imagine it was a shock."

Mr Agius said he realised at that point the board had "no choice" but to call for Mr Diamond's resignation and together with Sir Michael they went to see Mr Diamond, who he described as "utterly depressed".

"Mike Rake and I called on Bob Diamond. We explained what had happened. He was not in a good place as you can imagine. We left confident that he would make the right decision."

But the committee chairman, Andrew Tyrie, pointed out that in his evidence Mr Diamond said he did not know if Mr Agius had spoken to the regulators. He asked Mr Agius if he had told Mr Diamond about the conversation with the Governor. Mr Agius confirmed he had.