Regulator imposes substantial fine on Barclays Bank

One of Britain’s biggest banks has been hit with a £72million fine by the City regulator.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed the penalty on Barclays Bank, following fears that a so-called “elephant deal” ran the risk of the institution being used for money laundering or even to finance terrorism.

The £1.9billion deal, dating from 2011-12, was the largest of its kind that the bank’s financial management operation had ever handled.

But the sheer amount of cash involved raised alarm bells among FCA officials.

A subsequent investigation found that Barclays – who stood to make a substantial profit from the arrangement – had failed to carry out adequate checks on the clients and had in fact breached its own controls.

Senior staff had gone to great lengths to keep the identity of the clients secret; documents were kept in a safe that few employees knew about and details were not uploaded to the bank’s computer system.

Mark Steward, the FCA’s director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Barclays ignored its own process designed to safeguard against the risk of financial crime and overlooked obvious red flags to win new business and generate significant revenue. This is wholly unacceptable.”

A Barclays spokesman said: “The FCA made no finding that Barclays facilitated any financial crime in relation to the transaction or the clients on whose behalf it was executed.

“Barclays has co-operated fully with the FCA throughout and continues to apply significant resources and training to ensure compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements.”

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