Barclays

Barclays is a British bank that provides services for individuals and corporate clients, including in the field of investment and asset management. For 2010, Barclays offices are located in Europe, America, Africa and Asia. Barclays operates in more than 50 countries worldwide with a total of more than 144,000 employees. At this time, Barclays forwards, lends, invests and protects the money of 48 million customers around the world.

2024

Sale of $1.1 billion in US credit card debt to Blackstone

In February 2024, it was announced that Barclays would sell $1.1 billion in credit card debt USA to the company. Blackstone

Banks around the world are increasingly using credit risk transfers to reduce risk across loan portfolios, with investors sharing the risk of loss, according to Reuters.

Plan to reorganise and cut spending by £2bn by 2026

In February 2024, Barclays Plc said it would launch a massive cost-cutting campaign in the coming years and return at least £10bn to shareholders, ending speculation over the future direction of one of Europe's biggest investment banks.

The company is reorganizing into five divisions and will rearrange top managers.

The bank plans to cut costs by £2bn by 2026 to boost returns.

2023

Staff reduction

World banks cut more than 60 thousand jobs in 2023

Qatar sovereign wealth fund sells nearly half of its shares in Barclays

In early December 2023, it became known that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is selling almost half of its shares in Barclays Plc. This is a natural move by one of the UK bank's long-time lenders, taking place at a time when the lender's executives are contemplating a strategic overhaul. Qatar Holding LLC is the largest investor, with a 5% stake.

Qatar Holding LLC is selling 361.7 million shares in the British company, according to the terms of the offering, which were reviewed by Bloomberg News. The company could fetch up to £517m ($644m).

2022

Payment of a fine of $200 million for the use of WhatsApp by employees at work

On July 28, 2022, Barclays announced that the bank had reached an agreement with US regulators to pay a $200 million fine in connection with an investigation into employees' business communications via electronic messaging channels that were not approved by the financial institution.

According to the decision, which Barclays announced as part of the publication of quarterly reports, the company will pay a fine of $125 million Securities and Exchange Commission and a fine of $75 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Barclays is introducing new software on corporate mobile phones that archives messages, and WhatsApp board members agreed to a salary reduction of about €75,000 each, as they took responsibility for the widespread use of unauthorized messages among employees, the newspaper reports. Bloomberg

Bank employees in Britain are prohibited from using WhatsApp at work. Barclays disobeyed and will pay $200 million

Since 2014, in Britain, bank employees have been banned from doing business on third-party platforms, including WhatsApp, in order to comply with accounting rules. However, the country's regulators have found many examples where employees communicate on personal accounts during working hours.

Barclays did not satisfy the regulator about the basics of information security, from this item it follows that access to the Internet is provided to bank employees solely for work purposes, for the performance of official duties. The use of Internet access for non-service purposes is strictly prohibited. It is strictly forbidden to visit sites that contain information of an entertaining, erotic and profanity, as well as use external free email servers and instant messaging services.^[1]

Investing in Copper

On July 24, 2022, Barclays invested in Copper, a crypto service created by a Russian investor, despite a decrease in global appetite for risky assets such as crypto assets. This was reported in the credit organization itself. Read more here.

Investing in ZeroAvia

On July 26, 2022, ZeroAvia announced a $30 million investment from Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, NEOM and AENU. At the same time, International Airlines Group (IAG) supplemented its early investments and brought the Series B financing round to $68 million. Read more here.

Loss of $600 million due to an error in the sale of securities

At the end of March 2022, the management of the British bank Barclays reported losses of $600 million caused by an error in the sale of securities. For 2021, the bank sold nearly twice as many securities as were registered for sale in the United States, the company said. The bank exceeded the limit of $20.8 billion by $15.2 billion.

The products were two listed bonds related to crude oil and market volatility, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency. Barclays suspended the sale and issue of securities in March 2022.

Barclays loses $600m on securities sale error

The bank will have to make a buyback of the securities at their original purchase price, Barclays officials said. Barclays said it will delay a planned $1.150 billion share buyback until the second quarter. In addition, the bank ordered an independent analysis on this case.

{{quote 'Such a seemingly banal mistake could weaken confidence in the investment bank in the future, says Redburn analyst Fahed Kunwar. With the emergence of a new management team, there are already doubts about the investment bank's ability to continue to maintain strong performance. }}

The damage will reduce the bank's Tier 1 capital adequacy by approximately 14 basis points. According to the new forecast, at the end of March 2022, this figure will be 13-14%. Analysts call the error: basic, strange and shameful... Barclays said it was investigating the cause and responding to regulatory inquiries. According to a source familiar with the matter, those asking questions include employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission's law enforcement division USA (). SEC ^[2]

2021

Penalty for participating in a cartel in the Forex market

In early December 2021, the European Commission fined UBS, Barclays, RBS, HSBC and Credit Suisse 344 million euros for participating in a cartel in the Forex spot trading market.

Traders ran cartels from online chats, sharing sensitive information and trading plans that allowed them to make informed decisions about buying or selling currencies, the regulator said. In this case, traders periodically used a chat called "Sterling Lads" to plan their purchases and sales.

UBS Group AG avoided a €94 million fine under the Commission's leniency provisions for revealing the cartel's existence.

HSBC was fined €174 million.

Barclays was fined €54 million.

RBS was fined €32 million as part of an agreed settlement that allowed them to reduce sanctions by 10%.

Credit Suisse is obliged to pay 83 million euros and will not receive any reduction under the usual procedure.

Bank chief fired over possible links he had to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein

In early November 2021, Jes Staley stepped down as CEO of Barclays under pressure from regulators over how he characterized his relationship with convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Read more here.

Bank employee convicted of draining plumbing of confidential information about merger deals

Stephen McClatchy worked in Barclays' Manhattan office for seven years, from 2008 to 2015. It tracked the bank's involvement in potential merger and acquisition deals. Including, sent to some employees weekly material "M&A Global Weekly Business Update." It contained information about potential mergers in which the bank's clients participated. The information was confidential - the public found out about it later. It was thanks to this confidential data that the plumber managed to earn tens of thousands of dollars - illegally. Stephen shared insider information with Gary Pusey. He advised Gary to keep a closer eye on certain companies, as good news could soon be expected from them. However, he asked not to tell anyone about it, even the family. McClatchy shared information with a friend about 11 mergers and acquisitions, all before the information went public. Among them are deals with Forest Oil, Omnicare, CVS Health, Duke Energy, Questcor Pharmaceuticals and PetSmart.

All this happened from February 2014 to September 2015. According to the FBI, Pusey spent more than $422.2 thousand on the purchase of shares. According to the investigation, the plumber gave McClatchy several thousand dollars in cash for this service. Sometimes he would put money in a duffel bag that Stephen would bring to the wharf. In other cases, he handed over money personally in the banker's garage. But the plumber's gratitude didn't end there - Pusey renovated the bathroom at McClatchy's house for free.

The crime did not go unnoticed - the regulator discovered Pusey's illegal trade. The plumber was the first to go on trial, plead guilty to securities fraud and began cooperating with the investigation by extraditing his friend to authorities. Following him, Stephen was arrested. At the trial, the former director of Barclays said that with the help of insider information he wanted to ingratiate himself with a plumber in the hope of getting a job outside Wall Street - at Pusey's firm, where he wanted to take up the management of this business. "I got into this business for a selfish, stupid reason - to find a easier job for myself," McClatchy admitted. After his career was ruined, Stephen changed his view of the life he led. He said that he would now "give everything to get up at 5:30 in the morning to work." "Now all the stress and pressure no longer seems so bad to me," said the former director of Barclays. McClatchy pleaded guilty, too. "I sincerely regret what I did, and for the rest of my life I will have a strong sense of remorse," he said.

He faced up to 25 years in prison. But in January 2017, he was sentenced to five months in prison and two probation and a fine of $10 thousand. Pusey was given two years probation and issued a fine of $5,000. Both of them must return the $76 thousand that the plumber illegally earned on the stock market.

Banning customers from transferring funds to the Binance exchange

In July 2021, Barclays Bank banned customers from transferring funds to the Binance crypto exchange. The measure does not apply to the withdrawal function.

2020

US financial intelligence charge for servicing Arkady Rotenberg's company account to evade sanctions

In September 2020, US financial intelligence claims that Arkady Rotenberg could use Barclays Bank in London "to launder money and evade US sanctions."

In 2008, Barclays opened an account for Rotenberg's company called Advantage Alliance. And between 2012 and 2016, the company transferred £60m. Many of the transactions came after the Rotenberg brothers were sanctioned.

In July 2020, the US Senate, during an investigation, accused the Rotenberg of using expensive works of art to evade sanctions - one of the companies involved in the scheme was the same Advantage Alliance.

US investigators concluded Advantage Alliance was Rothenberg's and that the company used its Barclays account in London to buy millions of dollars worth of artwork for it. So on June 17, 2014, the company sent money from Moscow to the Alliance Barclays account in London. The next day, Barclays sent $7.5 million to the seller of Rene Magritte's Poitrin painting in New York.

In April 2016, Barclays launched an internal investigation into several accounts that were linked to the Rotenbergs. Six months later, the bank closed its Advantage account after worrying it was being used to transfer suspicious funds.

Other Barclays accounts linked to the Rotenberg remained open until 2017. Ayrton Development Limited had one such account.

Use of prohibited software to spy on employees

The British Office of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in August 2020 initiated an investigation into Barclays Bank on suspicion that the financial organization monitored employees using software.

Barclays management used Sapience Analytics production monitoring software to track how much time employees spend out of the workplace and how much time they spend on tasks.

The program has been used for 18 months to analyze anonymous data on the work of personnel, but in February this year, the software introduced an additional function that allows management to track individual employees.

After information about this practice was leaked to the press, the bank announced that it was refusing to collect personified persons.

2017: Refusal to distribute Kaspersky Lab antiviruses

In early December 2017, Barclays stopped offering Kaspersky Lab antivirus software to its customers after British authorities called the products a national security threat. This decision was made following a campaign in the United States, during which it was alleged about the allegedly existing cooperation between Kaspersky Lab and the Russian special services. The company itself has repeatedly pointed out the absence of any evidence in this charge.

According to the BBC, the collaboration between Barclays and Kaspersky Lab began in 2008. For nine years, about 290 thousand customers of one of the largest banks in the UK have installed antiviruses of a Russian company on their devices.

On December 1, 2017, the British Center for National Cybersecurity (NCSC) banned the use of Kaspersky Lab software in government agencies responsible for national security. The company was suspected of having ties with Russian special services. However, the NCSC statement stressed that the center does not urge companies and ordinary users to abandon the developer's IT solutions.

Barclays Bank stopped offering Kaspersky Lab antiviruses to customers

Barclays clarified that the bank received a recommendation from the government "to withdraw any Russian products from all highly sensitive systems, the level of admission to which is classified as secret or higher."

We decided that as a precaution we would no longer offer Kaspersky software to new users. At the same time, there is no reason to believe that clients need to stop using Kaspersky. At this stage, there is no need for you to take any action. It is important that you continue to protect yourself with antivirus software, Barclays said, adding that the company takes security issues very seriously.

A Kaspersky Lab spokesman told the BBC that the company was disappointed with Barclays' decision. The software manufacturer also announced the beginning of a constructive dialogue with NCSC to develop a mechanism that would help to independently verify the security of Kaspersky Lab products and services^[3]

2014: Bank employees copy data of hundreds of thousands of customers for sale on the black market

In February 2014, Barclays leaked personal data, as a result of which hundreds of thousands of bank customers were among the victims. It is important to note that this leak of confidential information is different from other cases of data loss in that it was not accidental. Personal information was deliberately copied by bank employees for the subsequent sale of data on the black market.

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