Barclays Slapped With $56 Million Fine for Anti-Money Laundering Failures

The fine covers two cases that demonstrate “failings in its financial crime risk management,” according to a Wednesday (July 16) press release.

Barclays did not reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The first case involved Barclays opening a client money account for wealth manager WealthTek, which the FCA shut down in 2023 due to “serious regulatory and operational issues,” according to a press release at the time. John Dance, the company’s former principal partner, was charged with fraud and is set to go to trial in 2027.

“One simple check it could have done was to look at the Financial Services Register before opening the account,” the Wednesday press release said. “Had it done so, it would have seen that WealthTek was not permitted by the FCA to hold client money.”

Barclays was fined 3 million pounds and will make a voluntary 6.3-million-pound payment to WealthTek’s customers, “who have a shortfall in the money they have been able to reclaim,” according to the release.

In the second case, the watchdog fined Barclays 39.3 million pounds for failing to manage money laundering risks when providing banking services to Stunt & Co. The company received 46.8 million pounds from Fowler Oldfield, “a multimillion-pound money laundering operation,” the release said.

“Barclays failed to properly consider the money laundering risks associated with the firm even after receiving information from law enforcement about suspected money laundering through Fowler Oldfield, and after learning that the police had raided both firms,” the release said.

“Barclays secured a significant reduction in its fine” in the WealthTek case by cooperating with the investigation and making the voluntary repayment, according to the release. The bank is engaged in a “significant remediation program” to bolster its anti-money laundering control operations.

The fine came just over a week after the FCA penalized Monzo, a U.K.-based digital bank, for its deficient crime controls.

The FCA fined Monzo about $28.5 million for failing to establish and maintain proper customer onboarding, risk assessment and transaction monitoring between October 2018 and August 2020.