London — The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had reopened its investigation into Barclays’s 2008 emergency fundraising from Qatar despite issuing a fine in the case four years ago as charging decisions from a parallel criminal case were set to be announced soon, a person familiar with the probe said.
The FCA called in a number of people for interviews in the case in recent weeks, said the person who asked not to identified because the process is private. The UK regulator already fined Barclays £50m over the fund raising in 2013. The bank said it would contest the penalty but the challenge was put on hold pending the outcome of a criminal probe by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
The investigations target two "advisory-services agreements" to the value of £322m Barclays committed to pay the Qatar Investment Authority during the 2008 financial crisis.
The pacts came at about the same time the sovereign wealth fund joined a two-stage £12bn fundraising to help the bank avoid a state bailout, raising questions about the purpose of the agreements.
Spokesmen for the FCA and Barclays declined to comment.
The FCA’s decision to reopen its case comes after Barclays turned over about 100,000 new documents to the SFO in 2016 after dropping a claim the material was covered by attorney-client privilege, the person said.
If the FCA wanted to alter its previous penalty report, known as a warning notice, substantially or issue a new one, it would have to get sign-off from the Regulatory Decisions Committee (RDC). The RDC is an independent internal panel that must approve enforcement action before it is issued.
The SFO plans to announce charges in the coming weeks.
At least eight former senior Barclays individuals including former CEs John Varley and Bob Diamond, have been interviewed under caution by the prosecutor in the probe.
Interviews under caution are generally conducted with possible suspects and anything said can be used in court.
Some of those individuals had sent final pleas to the SFO recently outlining why they should not face charges, people with knowledge of the case have said. The SFO told a London court in 2016 it would decide on charges by the end of March and the prosecutor was on track to make an announcement about then, three of the people said.
The FCA also issued preliminary investigation reports to a few former Barclays executives a few years ago, people with knowledge of the case said previously. The reports are the first stage of the enforcement process, outlining the regulator’s findings for the individual to respond to. They are usually followed by a formal notice of enforcement action, which often includes a fine.
Bloomberg
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