FCA fines and enforcement actions in 2022

In 2022 the FCA decided to fine Barclays a total of £50 million for failing to tell the market about side arrangements with Qatari investors during its two emergency capital raisings in June and October 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. Barclays had agreed to pay a Qatari entity £322 million under two "advisory" agreements that were really the price of the Qataris' investment, and the FCA found its conduct in the October 2008 fundraising was reckless and lacked integrity, breaching the Listing Rules that require companies to give investors accurate information. Barclays referred the decision to the Upper Tribunal, but in November 2024 it withdrew that challenge to draw a line under the 16-year-old matter; the FCA then issued final notices imposing a reduced penalty of £40 million, while noting that Barclays does not accept the findings.

The FCA fined Barclays Bank £783,800 in February 2022 for weak oversight of its business customer Premier FX, a small payments firm for which Barclays was the sole UK banker. Premier FX collapsed in 2018 after the death of its sole director, when it emerged it had been taking deposits it was not authorised to take and had not kept client money separate, leaving 167 customers — mostly British expats in Spain and Portugal — with losses of just over £10 million. The FCA found Barclays failed to act with due skill, care and diligence: it did not check that Premier FX's real activity matched what it expected, and it missed signs that the firm's internal controls were deficient. Barclays settled early for a 30% discount and voluntarily paid £10,076,943.75 so that every customer with an accepted claim got all their money back.