British legislators backed a government plan to hold a parliamentary inquiry into the professional and cultural standards of bankers, after the Barclays rate-rigging scandal.
They rejected a call by the opposition Labour party for the inquiry to be an independent judge-led inquiry, along the lines of an existing wide-ranging probe into British media standards.
Legislators voted 330 to 226 in favour of the parliamentary inquiry, first announced by the government on July 2.
It was not immediately clear if the support for vote represented sufficient consensus for the government to proceed with the inquiry as planned.
The UK government wants Andrew Tyrie, chairman of parliament's influential Treasury Committee, to head the inquiry, but he has said it is "essential" that the probe commands all party support and has indicated he would not lead the inquiry otherwise.
Britain's Barclay's bank was fined £290m sterling for its role in the rigging of the key Libor interest rate between 2005 and 2009, sparking fierce criticism about its culture and risk-taking and forcing its chief executive Bob Diamond to step down on Tuesday.
Earlier, ratings agency Standard and Poor's today downgraded Barclays' long-term rating outlook to negative from stable.
The cut comes as the British giant struggles with the fallout over an interest rate rigging scandal.
"The outlook revision reflects the resignation of Barclays CEO, Bob Diamond, on July 3, 2012," it said in a statement.
The group's chairman Marcus Agius and chief operating officer Jerry del Missier have also resigned over the scandal.
Putting the rating outlook on negative usually means it is at risk of being downgraded in the future, a move which can increase financing costs for the company affected.
"The negative outlook reflects our view of the current management flux and near-term strategic uncertainty arising from the revelation of what we perceive to be certain poor business practices and weak compliance in relation to the past setting of interbank offered rates," S&P said.
Earlier today, agency Moody's downgraded the outlook on Barclays' financial strength rating to "negative" from "stable" for the same reasons.
Moody's Investors Service changed the outlook on the C-/baa2 standalone bank financial strength rating (BFSR) of Barclays Bank Plc to negative from stable," the ratings agency said. The decision reflects "concerns that the senior resignations at the bank and the consequent uncertainty surrounding the firm's direction are negative for bondholders."
It added that the A2 long-term and Prime-1 short-term debt ratings remained unchanged.
"The A2 senior debt and deposit rating already has a negative outlook due to Moody's expectation that the UK government will reduce its support for large UK banks over the medium term," it also noted.
Moody's said that Barclays' senior debt and standalone ratings "could experience further downward pressure if the bank proved to be unable to restore a stable management structure over the coming months."
It added: "Given the negative outlook, any upward ratings movement is currently unlikely; however, the standalone rating could be stabilised if Barclays restores a stable management structure."
The bank was last week fined £290m sterling by British and US regulators for the attempted rigging of the Libor and Euribor interest rates.
Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) is a flagship London instrument used as an interest benchmark throughout the world, while Euribor is the euro zone equivalent. The rates play a key role in global markets, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money.
Diamond yesterday criticised "reprehensible" behaviour over the scandal in his first public comments since quitting.
