Barclays has revealed that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the biggest financial regulatory body in the UK, has been investigating their AML check due to possible misconduct. Whilst Barclays maintains a strong regulatory posture within many global jurisdictions, its UK division has long been subject to FCA scrutiny. This is an unsurprising start to the 2025 UK regulatory landscape, as many have been predicting a tighter fist from the FCA amidst their implementation of “new rules” to strengthen the resilience of the UK’s financial sector.
With several prominent UK banks, including Starling and Metro, having been called out for AML and IDV mishaps in 2024, including Starling and Metro, the UK financial sector must brace itself for a regulatory reshuffle in 2025, with AML making its debut as a sector priority. Ensuring best-in-class KYC solutions and a strong AML platform is critical.
On Thursday, the bank said the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was examining whether financial controls at its UK division had been too lax and if the lender had broken anti-money laundering laws.
This isn’t Barclays’ first rodeo with being publicly scrutinised by the regulator. The Guardian noted back in 2021 that the banking giant’s UK branch has been embroiled in one scandal after another over the past decade, starting with its conviction for channeling secret fees to Qatari investors in return for emergency funding during the peak of the 2008 financial crisis. The FCA ultimately ended up fining Barclays a whopping £40m last year over this 2008 incident, one that was apparently too big to forget, even over 15 years down the line. Barclays was labelled as having been “reckless” by the FCA for not disclosing enough information on the Qatari deal.
FCA’s Scrutiny Highlights the Importance of Robust AML Check Processes
The current investigation follows a previous two year enforcement investigation into Barclay’s compliance with UK-money laundering regulations that ended just last year. This previous investigation scrutinised Barclay’s transactions monitoring in certain parts of the UK bank.
The FCA’s investigation focuses primarily on the historical oversight and management of certain customers with heightened risk.
Despite reporting a 24% rise in both pre-tax and attributable profits for the full year and announcing plans for a £1 billion share buyback, Barclay’s shares fell nearly 6% on Thursday morning. It’s likely that these regulatory issues may have had a strong part to play in the drop in share price, which clearly indicates concerns that surpass the bank’s balance sheet.
As 2025 unfolds, UK financial services must proactively monitor AML infrastructure, or risk the FCA’s newfound regulatory whip slashing share prices. If you’re looking to tighten your regulatory compliance, get in touch with our expert compliance team.
