UK Regulator Fines Barclays £42m Over Money Laundering Oversight Failures

_{Photo credit: Electric Egg / Shutterstock.com}

Barclays Bank has been fined £42 million ($57 million) by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) due to failings in its money laundering risk management. The FCA found that Barclays did not adequately conduct ongoing monitoring on Stunt & Co or vet WealthTek, which led to the bank inadvertently facilitating financial crime.

The majority of the fine, £39.3 million ($53 million), is linked to Barclays’ failure to monitor Stunt & Co. The FCA revealed that over just a year, Stunt & Co received £46.8 million ($63 million) connected to Fowler Oldfield, a large-scale money laundering operation.

Hannah Von Dadelszen of the Crown Prosecution Service had earlier said:

This case [Fowler Oldfield] is one of the largest money laundering prosecutions ever brought to the courts in England and Wales. It involved a colossal quantity of cash, undoubtedly derived from criminal activity.

Barclays had failed to properly monitor this client and only reviewed its exposure after the FCA decided to prosecute NatWest for its relationship with Fowler Oldfield.

The remaining portion of the fine concerns WealthTek, where Barclays neglected to perform “one simple check” on the Financial Services Register. This check would have shown that WealthTek was not authorized by the FCA to hold client money after uncovering “serious regulatory and operational issues” at the partnership. WealthTek’s principal partner, John Dance, was charged in December 2024 with multiple offences, including money laundering and fraud.

Barclays said it cooperated fully with investigations. The FCA also noted that Barclays received a reduced fine thanks to its cooperation and voluntary payments to affected clients.