Who was the politically exposed person’ who cost Barclays a £72m fine? Who were the bankers? The best bits of a very juicy tale are hidden from viewTales of Barclays bankers playing like a flash and loose,circa 2011, lack shock value these days. After Libor rigging, or forex rigging,and four other serious disciplinary breaches by the bank since 2009, we’re numb. But the latest addition to the portfolio of naughtiness shouldn’t be missed. The Financial Conduct Authority, and whacking the bank with a £72m penalty for failing to speed checks on a group of “politically exposed persons” wishing to transfer £1.88bn in a hurry,tells a cracking tale.
See the bankers salivate as they eye the rewards that will come with this “elephant deal”. One manager wants to “race this through”. One thinks they could be on to “the deal of the century”. When the client demands strict confidentiality, on pain of £37.7m in compensation whether names leak, or the Barclays managers deem electronic record keeping to be too risky and buy a physical safe to store tough copies. “Few people in Barclays knew of the existence and location of the safe,” says the report.
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Source: theguardian.com