Barclays has been fined £42 million by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for serious shortcomings in its anti-money laundering (AML) oversight, marking the third such penalty in the past decade for the British banking giant.
The FCA’s investigation focused on two high-profile cases tied to ongoing criminal proceedings. One involved WealthTek, a now-defunct wealth management firm shut down over “serious regulatory and operational issues,” and the other linked to Stunt & Co, a business run by James Stunt, the former son-in-law of Formula 1 magnate Bernie Ecclestone.
In the first case, Barclays failed to carry out a basic due diligence check before opening a client money account for WealthTek. According to the FCA, simply consulting the Financial Services Register would have revealed that WealthTek was not authorized to hold client funds. Barclays has since agreed to pay £6.3 million in compensation to WealthTek’s clients, many of whom are still unable to recover their money.
WealthTek’s collapse has been described by the FCA as “one of the most serious and largest frauds we have ever investigated.” John Dance, former head of WealthTek, is accused of misappropriating £64 million in client funds to finance luxury purchases, including racehorses and a nightclub. He has pleaded not guilty to six counts of fraud, with a trial scheduled for September 2027.
In the second case, the FCA found that Barclays provided banking services to Stunt & Co, which later received £46.8 million from Fowler Oldfield — a company at the center of a major money laundering investigation. Despite clear warning signs, including police raids and arrests at Fowler Oldfield’s premises in 2016, Barclays continued to classify Stunt & Co as “low risk” and failed to reassess the nature of the business or the source of its funds.
James Stunt was later acquitted in a jury trial, but two directors from Fowler Oldfield were convicted of money laundering. The FCA emphasized that Barclays’ failure to act facilitated the movement of funds connected to financial crime. It wasn’t until 2020 that Barclays closed Stunt & Co’s accounts — and only after learning that NatWest had been charged for its own links to Fowler Oldfield. NatWest was fined £265 million in 2021 for its involvement.
This is not Barclays’ first run-in with the regulator. In 2015, the bank was fined £72 million over a transaction dubbed the “elephant deal,” which involved wealthy Qatari clients. In 2022, it was penalized again for failings related to its relationship with the defunct Premier FX payments firm.
In response to the latest fine, Barclays stated that it “remains deeply committed to the fight against financial crime and fraud,” noting that the Stunt & Co case centered on historic activity. The bank emphasized that the FCA did not find it had breached money laundering regulations and highlighted its cooperation with the investigation, adding that it has since “further strengthened its financial crime and other control capabilities.”
The FCA acknowledged that Barclays is actively investing in a major remediation program to enhance its AML systems and risk controls.
