Barclays Bank (LON:BARC) has been slapped with the largest fine imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failing to carry out enough checks on rich clients.
The bank was fined £72mln by the FCA on Thursday for failing to minimise the risk of potential financial crime on a £1.88bn transaction made by several ultra-high net worth clients between 2011 and 2012.
The clients involved were “politically exposed persons” and should have been subject to enhanced levels of due diligence and monitoring by Barclays, the FCA said.
Barclays went to unacceptable lengths to accommodate the clients, it added, failing to gather information required for financial crime regulations for fear of being an inconvenience.
"Barclays did not follow its standard procedures, preferring instead to take on the clients as quickly as possible and thereby generated £52.3mln in revenue," the FCA said.
The fine comprises disgorgement of £52.mln, which is the amount of revenue that Barclays generated from the transaction, and a penalty of about £20mln.
The watchdog said while it made no findings that the transaction involved financial crime, the bank failed to adhere to a higher level of security expected for the deal.
Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Barclays ignored its own process designed to safeguard against the risk of financial crime and overlooked obvious red flags to win new business and generate significant revenue.
"This is wholly unacceptable.”
It is the latest in a long line of fines being imposed on the bank.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the British bank reportedly is to agree to pay at least £65.7mln in a deal with the New York financial regulator to resolve claims that it fixed foreign exchange markets.
The settlement could be completed as early as next month, reports cited an unidentified source as saying.