Yahoo Finance Barclays fined £50m over financial crisis-era Qatar deal
UK regulators have slapped Barclays (BARC.L) with a £50m ($55.6m) fine over a failure to disclose certain arrangements in its £4bn Qatari funding deal at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) called the bank's conduct in the capital raise between 25 June and 31 October 2008 "reckless", adding that it "lacked integrity".
Three former Barclays bankers were cleared of fraud over their role in the investment in 2020. They were accused of funnelling £322m in secret fees to the Middle Eastern country in exchange for emergency funding.
The Upper Tribunal will determine whether to uphold the FCA’s decisions against Barclays or not and whether there are any other actions that should be taken by the watchdog.
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Mark Steward, head of enforcement at the FCA, said the British bank had failed to make appropriate disclosures about paying "hundreds of millions of pounds in fees to certain Qatari investors so that they would contribute new capital" during the financial crisis-era.
"Barclays’ failure to disclose these matters was reckless and lacked integrity and followed an earlier failure to disclose fees paid to Qatari investors in June 2008," he said.
"There was no legitimate reason or excuse for failing to disclose these matters, certainly no basis for doing so because of the financial crisis."
The watchdog first issued a warning notice about the deal in 2013, but paused its action pending the outcome of cases brought by the Serious Fraud Office which concluded in 2019.
The bank, which has faced several legal cases over the Qatar fundraisings, said it is contesting the FCA’s decision with the regulator’s Upper Tribunal.
"Barclays has referred the findings of the regulatory decisions committee to the upper tribunal for reconsideration," a spokesperson for Barclays said.
Shares in the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) company fell 2.1% to 142.5p in mid-morning trade in London.
