FCA fine Barclays £50 million for failures relating to its capital raisings

On 21 October 2022 the FCA published its decision (provisional and subject to upper tribunal referral) to fine Barclays a total of £50 million. This related to Barclays failure to disclose certain arrangements agreed with Qatari entities as part of its capital raisings announced on 25 June 2008 and 31 October 2008, after finding that Barclays’ conduct in the October capital raising was "reckless and lacked integrity". Certain Qatari entities were key investors in both capital raisings. At the same time, as part of the basis on which the Qatari entities agreed to participate in the capital raisings, Barclays entered into two advisory agreements involving payments to one of the Qatari entities totaling £322 million. Barclays disclosed to shareholders that it had entered into an advisory agreement in June 2008, but did not disclose the October agreement, and did not disclose the payments under the capital raisings or their connection to the Qatari entities’ participation in the capital raisings. It was determined that disclosure of the payments would have had a material impact on the terms of the capital raisings.

A little different to our usual gap analysis exercises, but still some really important considerations for compliance professionals no matter what sector you’re operating in. In particular failings around governance and third party risk management are clear.

This notice relates to events in 2008 but we know from some of the work we do that these issues still persist.

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