FSA had warned Barclays on approving Diamond

Britain's financial regulator warned Barclays Plc in September 2010 that its position in approving Bob Diamond as chief executive could change if there was an adverse outcome from the Libor interest rate rigging investigation, documents showed.

The Financial Services Authority's file note of a meeting between its CEO Hector Sants and Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius, at which the approval of Diamond was discussed, said Sants "stressed that this is an ongoing investigation and the FSA's position could change so the board should be aware."

Diamond resigned in July after Barclays was fined over $450 million (277.6 million pounds) for rigging Libor benchmark interest rates.

The FSA documents were released by the British parliament's Treasury Select Committee, which is heading an investigation into the Libor scandal. The documents had been under embargo for release after midnight (12:01 a.m. British time), but some of the details were inadvertently published early by Reuters.