JULY 16 – Barclays Bank has been fined £42m by the UK’s monetary watchdog for failures in its cash laundering danger administration.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) mentioned Barclays had not correctly vetted two of its shoppers, Stunt & Co and WealthTek.
The FCA mentioned Barclays “facilitated the motion of funds linked to monetary crime” by offering providers to Stunt & Co and mentioned there was “an elevated danger” of consumer cash misappropriation or cash laundering from its failure to test WealthTek.
Barclays mentioned it absolutely co-operated with each investigations and has “additional strengthened its monetary crime and different management capabilities”.
The bulk of the tremendous, £39.3m, was in relation to Stunt & Co.
The FCA mentioned Barclays failed to hold out “correct ongoing monitoring” of its account with Stunt & Co.
“In the area of simply over a yr, Stunt & Co obtained £46.8 million from Fowler Oldfield, a multimillion-pound cash laundering operation,” the regulator mentioned,
It added that Barclays solely performed a evaluate of its publicity to Fowler Oldfield after it realized of the FCA’s determination to prosecute NatWest over their relationship with Fowler Oldfield.
The remainder of the tremendous was for WealthTek. The FCA mentioned “one easy test” Barclays might have achieved on the agency was to have a look at the Financial Services Register.
“Had it achieved so, it could have seen that WealthTek was not permitted by the FCA to carry consumer cash,” the FCA mentioned.
The FCA mentioned that in December 2024 it had charged John Dance, certainly one of WealthTek’s principal companions, with a number of prison offences, together with cash laundering and fraud.
His trial is scheduled for September 2027 at Southwark Crown Court.
Therese Chambers, from the FCA’s enforcement division, mentioned Barclays received a big discount in its tremendous by its “in depth co-operation” within the investigation of WealthTek and making a voluntary cost to affected shoppers, though additional particulars weren’t given.
Barclays mentioned it “stays deeply dedicated to the battle towards monetary crime and fraud.”
“The FCA’s investigation referring to Stunt & Co was centred round historic cash laundering exercise and made no findings that the financial institution had breached cash laundering laws,” it mentioned in an announcement.
“As acknowledged by the FCA, Barclays undertook an in depth evaluate and self-reported its findings to the FCA”, it added.
The FCA has fined Barclays for failings in monetary crime controls twice earlier than.
In 2022, it fined the financial institution £783,800 for oversight failings in its relationship with collapsed funds agency Premier FX, which the FCA mentioned introduced “significantly excessive dangers of monetary crime and fraud”.
In 2015, Barclays was fined £72m for failing to minimise the dangers of monetary crime in relation to a few of its ultra-wealthy shoppers, a few of whom had excessive political profiles.
By BBC
