Sir David Walker, Barclays’ designate-chairman, has told the new UK parliamentary inquiry into banking that “standards have slipped in a grave way” in the City of London and that a preoccupation among investment banks for short-term revenues had proved "hugely damaging".

Walker, who will replace Marcus Agius as chairman in November, told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking that the inquiry must seek to address remuneration of bankers and how bonuses are tied to an individual's revenues.