FCA Imposes £783,800 Penalty on Barclays

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced today that it has imposed a penalty of £783,800 on Barclays, the financial services giant in the UK, for oversight failings in the bank’s relationship with Premier FX, a collapsed payment firm.

Barclays has agreed to voluntarily cover the losses of the clients of Premier FX. According to FCA, the authority has taken into account the voluntary initiative of Barclays. FCA highlighted that the bank’s voluntary payment worth £10,076,943.75 will make sure that the 167 customers of Premier FX with accepted claims will have 100% of their money returned.

Barclays failed to identify that the internal controls of Premier FX were deficient. As a result, the financial services provider failed to conduct its business with due diligence.

“Premier FX, which handled money on behalf of other people, presented particularly high risks of financial crime and fraud. Barclays was aware of these high risks in providing banking services to Premier FX but failed to take reasonably appropriate steps to mitigate those risks. Barclays’ agreement to meet the deficiency in Premier FX’s funds mitigates the actual losses to Premier FX’s customers. This is a significant step to the credit of the bank and has reduced substantially the sanction that otherwise would have been imposed,” Mark Steward, the Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at FCA, said.

Barclays in 2022

The bank has started 2022 on a tough note. Earlier this month, FINRA imposed a fine of $350k on Barclays for lapses in market access controls. In terms of its management, Barclays recently announced the appointment of Anna Cross as Group Finance Director to Replace Tushar Morzaria, effective from 22 April 2022.

During the past few months, FCA imposed significant penalties on leading financial services providers in an effort to protect customers and enhance the implementation of due diligence in financial transactions.