Bob Diamond, boss of Barclays bank was forced to take a step where he will have to defend the bank's tax affairs after it was found that more than 300 subsidiaries of the bank are in the tax haven area.

The chief executive was caught off guard when he was asked about the position of the bank by the Labour MP Chuka Umunna. He asked him about why is the structure of Barclays so complicated and has got close to some 1,000 companies under its umbrella all across the globe. They were together during a highly charged hearing that was called by the Treasury Select Committee.

In the end he was forced to accept that he did not know about why such a thing is there. He was also asked to tell as to how many subsidiaries the bank has in the Cayman Islands and also Isle of Man.

He also said that he can assure the authorities that in no way the bank was evading taxes.

In reply to this, Umunna pointed out that Diamond was clear as to what, where and how much of 'tax avoidance' was taking place by the bank. He preferred to call it as 'tax efficiency'.