Barclays fined £42m over poor handling of financial crime risk

Barclays has been fined £42m over “poor handling” of financial crime risks linked to two clients, including a gold bullion business run by James Stunt, the former son-in-law of Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the bulk of the penalties, about £39.3m, related to Barclays’ failure to properly screen Stunt’s business – Stunt & Co – and its relationship with Fowler Oldfield, a Bradford jeweller now infamously linked to a large money-laundering operation.

The failures spanned 2015 to 2021, and Stunt & Co ultimately received £46.8m from Fowler Oldfield.

Barclays was made aware of the fact that Fowler Oldfield was the subject of a criminal investigation involving potential money laundering in August 2016. But the bank only started to review of its exposure to the company four years later, when the FCA fined NatWest more than £264m over its relationship the purported jeweller.

The case gained widespread press attention, given the extraordinary details, including that staff had been depositing “big black bin liners” full of cash at a NatWest branch that overwhelmed its floor-to-ceiling safes.

The FCA said on Wednesday that Barclays “did not gather enough information at the start of the relationship or carry out proper ongoing monitoring”.

In March, two directors for Fowler Oldfield were convicted of money laundering and sentenced to more than a decade in prison each. Stunt was cleared at Leeds crown court of any money-laundering charges in relations to funds received from the purported jeweller.

Barclays was also fined £3.1m on Wednesday for failing to check it had enough information to understand the money-laundering risk before opening a client money account for the now-collapsed wealth management firm WealthTek.

The FCA in December charged WealthTek’s former head partner John Dance with fraud and laundering more than £64m from the firm’s client accounts. Dance is due to face a criminal trial at Southwark crown court in September 2027.

Commenting on the fines, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, Therese Chambers, said: “The consequences of poor financial crime controls are very real – they 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. In the first of these cases, Barclays secured a significant reduction in its fine through its extensive cooperation with our investigation and through making a voluntary payment to affected consumers at our request.”

Barclays said the bank remained “deeply committed to the fight against financial crime and fraud”.

It added: “The FCA’s investigation relating to Stunt & Co was centred around historical money-laundering activity and made no findings that the bank had breached money-laundering regulations.

“As acknowledged by the FCA, Barclays undertook an extensive review and self-reported its findings to the FCA. Barclays fully cooperated with both investigations and has further strengthened its financial crime and other control capabilities.”