Barclays’ regulatory woes continue to pile up. A new probe is being launched by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the U.K. for the British bank’s bail-out by the Middle East in 2008.
The inquiry focuses on the disclosures of commission payments made by Barclays to secure the bail-out funds totaling £11.5 billion (about $18 billion), which were raised in two tranches in June and November of 2008, says a report in The Independent.
Of particular interest to regulators is the Qatari portion of the two deals which also involved the Japanese corporation Sumitomo Mitsui and Manchester City’s owner Sheikh Mansour.
The deals were called into question when it was discovered that new investors received very favourable terms not available to other shareholders. The commissions paid to some investors were also appeared to be disproportionate compared to the usual costs of raising funds in the London, England.
The new investigation into Barclays’ dealings comes close on the heels of the bank’s $453 million settlement with regulators on either side of the Atlantic over its alleged attempts to manipulate Libor interest rates.
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