Barclays fined £72m for lax checks on ultra-rich clients

BANKING giant Barclays has been fined £72m by the Financial Conduct Authority for failing to carry out proper checks on ultra-rich clients.

The FCA have said that the failings related to a £1.88bn transaction that Barclays arranged and executed in 2011 and 2012 for a number of ultra-high net worth clients.

The clients involved were politically exposed persons (PEPs) and the FCA said that these were high risk individuals that should have been subject to greater due diligence.

They said that although there had been no financial crime, the failure to adhere to higher levels of care mean that Barclays did not follow its standard procedures, preferring instead to take on the clients as quickly as possible and thereby generated £52.3 million in revenue.

Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA 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.

“Firms will be held to account if they fail to minimise financial crime risks appropriately and for this reason the FCA has required Barclays to disgorge its revenue from the Transaction.”