Barclays challenges 50m fine.

During the financial crisis, Barclays is challenging a £50mn fine from UK regulators over the bank’s allegedly «reckless» failure «to disclose certain arrangements» about Qatari fundraising 14 years ago. Mark Steward, head of enforcement at the Financial Conduct Authority, said yesterday that Barclays 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». Barclays, which has faced several legal cases over the Qatar fundraisings, is contesting the FCA’s decision at the regulator’s upper tribunal. The latest decision is another setback for Barclays, which has spent millions of pounds on legal fees for court battles and fines relating to its fundraising.

Barclays raised more than £11bn in emergency cash from investors during the 2008 financial crisis, helping the bank to avoid a government bailout. At the heart of the issue was whether Barclays received services for the £322mn in fees it paid Qatar or if it was an extra payment related to the share transactions hidden from the market and other investors. A $3bn loan from Barclays to the state of Qatar in November 2008 also questioned whether it was an inducement to the Qataris to invest. In 2017, the Serious Fraud Office accused Barclays and four former senior executives of conspiracy to defraud and false representation, which became the first criminal charges in the UK filed against a bank and its former bosses.

She claimed she lost out on fees because Barclays gave side payments to Qatar in the cash call. Staveley invested £3.5bn in Barclays on behalf of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, through her PCP Capital Partners, for a £30mn fee. She claims Barclays told her repeatedly that she would be given the same terms as the Qatar sovereign wealth fund.

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