Gem of the day

Barclays is going through the ringer this week as both its CEO and Chairman step down, following revelations that the bank manipulated key interest rates during the financial crisis.

In the words of one Barclays official to the British Bankers Associations:

"We’re clean but we’re dirty-clean, rather than clean-clean."

It's not hard to see where those grey areas of responsibility stem from when you take a look at Barclays' Citizenship Strategy. Two of its three pillars are essentially about increasing growth and profit:

• "Contributing to growth - We support economic growth and job creation by operating a strong, profitable business."
• "The way we do business - Our clients’ interests are at the heart of what we do."

For a business that clearly assumes growth and business as usual are the keys to responsibility, a crisis of this scale can hardly be a surprise.