(Picture: PA Archive)
BARCLAYS is facing a £450 million hit and regulatory investigations after it made a hash of a securities sale in the US.
It offered many more “structured products” for sale than intended, giving “a right to rescission” among some customers.
That will lead to fairly dramatic losses, and a delay in its £1 billion share buyback programme, which will now have to wait until after first quarter results in late April.
There will be “an independent review of the facts and circumstances” including “the control environment”. Regulators are “conducting inquiries and making requests” opening up the potential for a fine.
It would hardly be the first. Barclays was fined £26 million in 2020 for mistreatment of customers in financial difficulty, just one of a long-list of reprimands.
In a note, brokers at Jefferies called this “an unhelpful matter which has triggered an independent review around the control environment and regulatory enquiries may weigh on sentiment”.
Barclays shares fell 6p to 161p.
Barclays is still dealing with the fallout from the departure of Jes Staley, the chief executive who had connections to sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Staley is fighting to clear his name.
