£38m Barclays Fine for Client’s Assets

Barclays bank is one who is known for their part in the PPI mis-selling scandal and the total Barclays PPI bill has now hit a grand total of £5bn. An extraordinary amount of money, but a figure that doesn’t even come close to the total amount of money that was made by the banks by mis-selling the insurance; an insurance that wasn’t needed by a vast majority of customers.

You’d think that Barclays and other banks would have learnt when it came to being fined for misconduct and various other things; however it would seem that none of them do. As we’ve continually brought you different PPI news stories about the banks being fined for things left, right and centre.

Two in Three for Barclays

Barclays bank has been fined £38m for failing to keep its clients’ money safe. This isn’t the first time that they’ve been fined for this same thing. In 2011 they paid out a measly £1.1m for the exact same thing, making it two in three years now.

This fine comes as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) slapped the bank with a large penalty for the “unacceptable” failings when it came to separating their client assets worth £16.5bn from their own assets.

Speaking about the scenario, the FCA said that this put Barclays’ clients at risk of incurring extra costs, lengthy delays or even worse, losing their assets altogether if Barclays was to become insolvent.

FCA director of markets, David Lawton has said that Barclays’ lack of focus on the rules and regulations was totally unacceptable. The fact that they were willing to risk putting their clients at risk like that goes to show the lengths banks are willing to go to in order to try and make a profit.

Stepped Up

The financial crisis has meant that the regulators have all stepped up their scrutiny when it comes to the behaviours of the banks. Client asset segregation is one that has been under increased scrutiny from the regulators and that’s understandable.

In January 2011, the predecessor to the FCA, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has come out and said that they believed up to £752m of client money and assets had been at risk with the funds being tangled up with Barclays Capital’s own assets between 2002 and 2009.

The regulator has also said that they are happy that no clients had suffered any losses but that the client’s money was placed at “significant risk”. The FSA also fined JP Morgan £33.3m in 2010 over the exact same issue which was the biggest penalty at the time related to asset segregation.

If you think that Barclays may have mis-sold you PPI, why not fill in our online form and we will start the ball rolling with your claim. If you have any questions, we have a live chat facility on our website so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask, one of our claims experts will be on hand to assist you.

Barclays Fine