No big pay offs for bank execs in rate scandal -PM

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, flanked by Foreign Secretary William Hague (R), announces an inquiry into banking practices, at parliament in London July 2, 2012. Britain will launch a parliamentary inquiry into its banking industry to examine its culture and standards as well as the causes of an interest rate-fixing scandal, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Bank executives forced to resign over an interest rate-rigging scandal should not receive big pay offs, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday, a day after the chief executive of Barclays quit over the affair.

"I think it would be completely wrong if people who were leaving under these circumstances were given some vast pay off. It would be completely inexplicable to the British public and would not be right," Cameron told parliament.

Barclays boss Bob Diamond resigned over his bank's involvement in attempting to rig Libor, the rate at which banks lend to each other and on which many financial products are based.

Several other banks are also thought to be involved and the British authorities has launched a range of investigations that could lead to criminal prosecutions.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas, editing by Matt Falloon)