Barclays Calls on Ex-CEO to Fight $50 Million UK Fine

Barclays has reportedly asked ex-CEO John Varley to help it challenge a $50 million fine.

The British banking giant will appear before the upper tribunal in London this week, challenging the fine over an emergency fundraising with investors from Qatar at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (Nov. 24).

According to the report, the case is focused on the steps Barclays took to avoid a government bailout following the crisis that occurred with the implosion of Lehman Brothers.

This led to criminal and regulatory investigations and two failed prosecutions, the FT said, with Varley becoming the first major bank CEO to face a jury because of the financial crisis. He was ultimately acquitted, though the case helped lead to changes to corporate criminal liability in the U.K., the report added.

Now, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is alleging that Barclays violated British listing rules by failing to disclose it paid larger fees to Qatari investors than to those from other countries when it raised £11.8 billion in a pair of 2008 share sales.

The FCA announced its plans to fine Barclays in 2022, saying the bank had “acted recklessly” in misleading investors.

The report argued that the stakes are high for all involved. If Barclays prevails, it — and Varley — can declare victory in a yearslong battle to protect their reputations. And for the FCA, the case marks a final opportunity to punish a major bank for wrongdoing following the 2008 crisis.

Barclays last month agreed to pay $4 million to settle charges by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations relating to swap reporting.

The CFTC had said that the bank, between 2018 and 2023, failed to make correct or timely reports of more than 5 million swap transactions. These failures were due to “misreporting due to the use of a duplicate swap identifier; incorrect reporting of primary economic terms; misreported time stamps; errors in connection with continuation data reporting; and late reporting,” the commission said.

In other banking regulation news, a trio of U.S. regulators told the House Financial Services Committee last week that any new financial rulemaking would not commence until the new year, after the incoming Trump administration takes office.