Barclays Capital exec resigns - reports

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- A senior banker in charge of complex debt vehicles at Barclays Capital quit this week amid the global credit crisis, according to published reports.

Edward Cahill, who led the collateralized debt obligation division at the British bank, left earlier this week, the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal reported.

Collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, are pools of debt that investors buy in pieces. They are backed by assets like subprime home loans.

Cahill's resignation comes as some complicated investment structures arranged by Barclays lost value amid the turmoil in credit markets, the newspapers said.

Cahill led a group at Barclays Capital that created a type of structured investment vehicle that relied on short-term financing to buy portfolios of securities with longer-term returns, according to the reports. But a freeze in the debt markets has made it difficult for these vehicles to raise money, they said.