Barclays Fined $56 Million Over Poor Handling Of Crime Risks

Britain's financial watchdog on Wednesday said it had fined Barclays bank $56 million for "poor handling of financial crime risks".

The Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement that the fine was "for separate instances of failings in its financial crime risk management" between 2015 and 2023.

A Barclays spokesperson said the British bank is "deeply committed to the fight against financial crime and fraud", after its third FCA fine for failings in financial crime controls since 2015.

They added in a statement that "Barclays fully cooperated with both investigations and has further strengthened its financial crime and other control capabilities".  

In the first case, Barclays "failed to check it had gathered sufficient information to understand the money laundering risk, before opening a client money account for WealthTek", a wealth manager which the regulator had shut down.

The FCA said Barclays needed to carry out only "one simple check" to see that "WealthTek was not permitted by" the regulator to hold client money.

The bulk of the fine $5.25 million -- was for Barclays "failing to adequately manage money laundering risks associated with providing banking services to Stunt & Co", a trader of gold.

FCA enforcement director Therese Chambers said "the consequences of poor financial crime controls... allow criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes, and they allow fraudsters to defraud consumers". 

"Banks need to take responsibility and act promptly, particularly when obvious risks are brought to their attention," she added in a statement.

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