Barclays fined £72m for financial crime oversight failings

Biggest fine of its type ever issued

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Barclays £72m for failing to minimise the risk of being used to facilitate financial crime, the biggest fine of its type ever issued.

The failings relate to a £1.9bn transaction that Barclays arranged and executed in 2011 and 2012 for a number of ultra-high-net-worth clients. According to the FCA, the clients were politically exposed persons and should therefore have been subject to enhanced levels of due diligence and monitoring. Ten times the regulator cracked down on investment firms The regulator said in reality Barclays applied a lower level of due diligence than its policies required for other business relationships of a lower risk profile. It accused the bank of avoiding its standard procedures in favour...