Sir Mervyn King called Libor review 'wholly inadequate', new emails show Regulators and central banks have been drawn into scandal over the manipulation of the key interbank lending rate which has led to a £290m fine for Barclays and the resignation of the bank's top executives. The newly published emails showed that the Bank of England urged the BBA, the body responsible for Libor, for "greater energy" in overhauling the lending benchmark at the height of the financial crisis. There were widespread concerns about the rate at the time. Barclays, which admitted rigging the rate between 2005 and 2009, is just one of 16 banks being investigated by US, UK and EU regulators. Paul Tucker, now deputy governor at the BoE, said in 2008 that he did not expect the BBA to do a "root and branch review" of Libor, despite concerns raised by over "misreporting" of the rate by Tim Geithner, US Treasury Secretary who at the time was head of the New York Fed. The emails also show that Angela Knight, the BBA chief executive at the time, said she had discussed Libor "at some length" with the US Federal Reserve in 2008. Sir Mervyn, in evidence to the Treasury Select Committee investigating the rigging of Libor at Barclays bank, said that while the central bank was not responsible for regulating Libor, it was concerned about the rate. However, he stressed to MPs that while there was speculation by the manipulation or misreporting in 2008 but was no hard evidence - not even from the New York Fed, which last week released emails relating to Mr Geithner's concerns about the rate. The BoE said the emails cover all the "papers relevant to the Bank of England's interaction with the US Federal Reserve and with the British Bankers" Association (BBA) Libor Review in 2008" as requested by the Treasury Committee. It said they would allow Committee members to see the full context surrounding Libor. A brief commentary and timeline of the events around the BBA Review in 2008 was also released.