Barclays has been fined £72 million by UK regulators after they decided that the bank had bypassed compliance procedures in a huge deal executed three years ago.

The deal was for a transaction of nearly £1.9 billion while Barclays stood to make £50 million profit from moving the cash.

FCA alert

The sheer size of the deal alerted the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and it transpired that this was the largest deal of its kind ever for Barclays’ wealth management operation.

The deal involved politically exposed persons (PEPs), some of whose names were kept confidential, even within the bank.

Checks waived

The FCA found that rather than thoroughly checking these clients, Barclays instead waived some of its routine checks and breached its own compliance controls.

This has now landed Barclays with the largest ever fine imposed on a bank for financial crime failings and brings the total of the bank’s penalties from UK regulators to nearly £500 million.

Breach of rules

The FCA did not find that Barclays facilitated money laundering or terrorist financing in the transaction.

But it had breached rules and, according to the FCA, the bank had gone to “significant lengths” to accommodate “a number of ultra-high net worth politically exposed persons.”

Categories: Trade Based Financial crimes News