Barclays Bank Plc

On 14 July 2025 the Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays Bank Plc £39,314,700 for breaching Principle 2 (firms must act with due skill, care and diligence). The FCA found that between 9 January 2015 and 23 April 2021 Barclays failed to identify, assess, monitor and manage adequately the money‑laundering risks arising from the provision of banking services to one corporate banking customer.

On 25 November 2024 the Financial Conduct Authority fined Barclays Bank Plc £10,000,000 for breaches of the Listing Rules in the issuer sector, specifically for failing to disclose information the rules require. The FCA issued a Final Notice setting out the breaches and imposed the financial penalty. The regulator's Final Notice (link below) contains the detailed findings; I did not find independent press coverage in the searches I ran.

In 2022 the FCA decided to fine Barclays a total of £50 million for failing to tell the market about side arrangements with Qatari investors during its two emergency capital raisings in June and October 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. Barclays had agreed to pay a Qatari entity £322 million under two "advisory" agreements that were really the price of the Qataris' investment, and the FCA found its conduct in the October 2008 fundraising was reckless and lacked integrity, breaching the Listing Rules that require companies to give investors accurate information. Barclays referred the decision to the Upper Tribunal, but in November 2024 it withdrew that challenge to draw a line under the 16-year-old matter; the FCA then issued final notices imposing a reduced penalty of £40 million, while noting that Barclays does not accept the findings.

The FCA fined Barclays Bank £783,800 in February 2022 for weak oversight of its business customer Premier FX, a small payments firm for which Barclays was the sole UK banker. Premier FX collapsed in 2018 after the death of its sole director, when it emerged it had been taking deposits it was not authorised to take and had not kept client money separate, leaving 167 customers — mostly British expats in Spain and Portugal — with losses of just over £10 million. The FCA found Barclays failed to act with due skill, care and diligence: it did not check that Premier FX's real activity matched what it expected, and it missed signs that the firm's internal controls were deficient. Barclays settled early for a 30% discount and voluntarily paid £10,076,943.75 so that every customer with an accepted claim got all their money back.

In December 2020 the FCA fined Barclays Bank UK, Barclays Bank and Clydesdale Financial Services a combined £26,056,400 for the poor treatment of consumer credit customers who fell behind on repayments or got into financial difficulty between April 2014 and December 2018. Barclays failed to have proper conversations with struggling customers to understand why they were in arrears, did not properly assess their circumstances, and as a result offered repayment plans that were unaffordable or unsustainable — breaching the FCA's rules requiring firms to treat customers fairly and to organise their affairs responsibly. Barclays had already identified around 1.5 million affected customer accounts and paid them more than £273 million in redress. It did not dispute the findings and settled for a 30% discount, without which the fine would have been £37,223,500.

The FCA fined Barclays Bank £72,069,400 in November 2015 over a £1.88 billion structured investment it arranged in 2011 and 2012 for a group of ultra-wealthy clients who were politically exposed persons, and who should therefore have been subject to enhanced checks. Barclays nicknamed it an "elephant deal" because of its size, but rather than applying its normal anti-money-laundering procedures it cut corners to take the clients on quickly and keep the business. The FCA found Barclays failed to act with due skill, care and diligence between May 2011 and November 2014. The penalty comprised £52.3 million of revenue the bank earned from the deal plus a £19.8 million fine; Barclays settled early for a 30% discount, without which the total would have been £80,542,000. At the time it was the largest financial crime penalty ever imposed by the FCA or its predecessor.

On 20 May 2015 the FCA fined Barclays Bank £284,432,000 — then the largest penalty ever imposed by the FCA or its predecessor the FSA — for failing to control its London foreign exchange business between 1 January 2008 and 15 October 2013. Barclays traders formed tight-knit groups with traders at other banks in electronic chat rooms, sharing confidential client information and colluding to move benchmark exchange rates in their favour, putting the bank's interests ahead of clients and the wider market. Because Barclays had not joined the five other banks that settled with the FCA in November 2014, it received only a 20% discount; the fine would otherwise have been £355,540,000. The same day Barclays reached settlements with US authorities that took its total forex-related penalties to around $2.4 billion.

The FCA imposed a £37,745,000 penalty on Barclays Bank plc for failures in how it organised and controlled safe custody arrangements and for not arranging adequate protection for client safe custody assets. The breaches (of Principles 3 and 10 and multiple CASS rules) related to about £16.5bn of client safe custody assets held or arranged for between 1 November 2007 and 24 January 2012. Barclays qualified for a 30% early‑settlement discount, so the headline penalty was reduced from £53,921,619 to £37,745,000. The FCA said the failings left clients at risk of extra costs, lengthy delays or loss of assets had Barclays become insolvent during the Relevant Period.

On 23 May 2014 the FCA fined Barclays Bank PLC £26,033,500 for breaches of Principles 3 and 8 relating to the London Gold Fixing. The FCA found that between 7 June 2004 and 21 March 2013 Barclays failed to manage conflicts of interest and had inadequate systems, controls, policies and training around staff participation in the Gold Fixing while the bank also sold options that referenced the fixed gold price. The regulator highlighted a specific incident on 28 June 2012 when a Barclays trader who was responsible for risk-managing a customer option participated in the 3:00pm Gold Fixing and placed orders intended to increase the chance the fix would be below a level, putting his interests ahead of the customer’s. The FCA noted Barclays did not formally record Gold Fixing orders until 5 February 2013 and did not identify Gold Fixing transactions separately from spot trades until 21 March 2013; the fine was reduced from £37,190,800 because of a Stage 1 settlement discount.

On 27 June 2012 the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the FCA's predecessor, fined Barclays Bank £59.5 million — its largest ever fine — for misconduct in the way it submitted rates for LIBOR and EURIBOR, the benchmark interest rates that underpin trillions of pounds of loans and financial contracts. Between 2005 and 2009 Barclays' submissions took account of requests from its own derivatives traders who stood to profit, it tried to influence other banks' EURIBOR submissions, and during the financial crisis it lowered its LIBOR submissions because senior managers were worried about negative media comment on the bank's health. The FSA found Barclays lacked adequate controls over the process and failed to act with due skill and care when concerns were raised internally. Barclays settled early for a 30% discount (the fine would otherwise have been £85 million) and paid a further $360 million to US authorities, bringing the total to about £290 million; within days chairman Marcus Agius and chief executive Bob Diamond had resigned.

On 14 January 2011 the FSA fined Barclays Bank plc £7.7m for failings between July 2006 and November 2008 in the sale of Aviva’s Global Balanced Income Fund and Global Cautious Income Fund. The bank qualified for a 30% early‑settlement discount (Stage 1) so the penalty was reduced from £11.0m to £7.7m; the FSA found breaches of Principle 9 (firms must take reasonable care to ensure advice is suitable) and breaches of COB/COBS rules. The regulator said Barclays gave advisers inadequate training and product literature, sent sales briefs that emphasised benefits but not risks, and failed to monitor sales properly; 12,331 customers invested about £692m, 1,676 customers had complained by December 2010 and about £17m compensation had been paid with a further £20m–£42m expected (total customer redress could be up to about £60m), and Barclays agreed a third‑party past business review to identify unsuitable sales and pay redress where required.

On 19 August 2009 the Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined Barclays Bank plc and Barclays Capital Securities Limited £2,450,000 (reduced from £3,500,000 for early settlement) for breaches occurring between 1 October 2006 and 31 October 2008. The FSA found Barclays failed to submit accurate transaction reports (SUP 17) in relation to an estimated 57.5 million transactions. The regulator also concluded Barclays breached Principle 2 (to conduct business with due skill, care and diligence — here, by not sufficiently reviewing its transaction‑reporting systems) and Principle 3 (to take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs, including adequate risk management systems, to meet reporting requirements).