Bank queried Barclays" Libor submissions A top Bank of England official told Bob Diamond, then head of Barclays" investment bank, in 2008 that "senior figures" in Whitehall were questioning why the bank's submissions to the setting of the Libor interbank lending rate were always at the high end of the range, according to Mr Diamond's contemporaneous notes of the conversation. Paul Tucker, deputy governor, "was certain we did not need advice [but] that it did not always need to be the case that we appeared as high as we have recently," Mr Diamond wrote in one of only three "notes to file" he has written in his entire career. After that call, other Barclays senior managers told the employees responsible for participating in the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, process to reduce their daily estimates of the rate. The October 29 2008 conversation occurred as several other UK banks were being rescued with government funds and speculation was rife that Barclays might also need help. Barclays paid £290m last week as it admitted it under-estimated the Libor rate during the financial crisis to make itself appear financial stronger. The settlement documents describe the Tucker-Diamond conversation without names attached and say that no instruction to lower the rate was given, but that other Barclays employees "misinterpreted" Mr Diamond's account. The notes, which were emailed to Barclays then-chief executive John Varley and Jerry del Missier, the then president of Barclays Capital - who like Mr Diamond resigned on Tuesday - were disclosed by the bank as part of its submission to the House of Commons Treasury select committee.