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The UK financial watchdog’s decision to fine Barclays heavily for failing to conduct appropriate money laundering checks demonstrates a renewed focus on compliance in this area.
Last week, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Barclays Bank UK PLC and Barclays Bank PLC a total of £42m for separate failings in financial crime risk management, one relating to WealthTek and one relating to Stunt & Co.
In the first case, the regulator fined Barclays Bank UK PLC £3.1m for opening a client money account for WealthTek without adequately assessing the money laundering risks.
“One simple check it could have done was to look at the Financial Services Register before opening the account. Had it done so, it would have seen that WealthTek was not permitted by the FCA to hold client money,” the FCA said.
Without the appropriate information about WealthTek and how the account would be used, there was an increased risk of misappropriation of client money or money laundering, the watchdog added. Clients went on to deposit £34m into the account.
The FCA separately charged WealthTek’s principal partner with money laundering and fraud offences in December 2024.
Barclays agreed to make a voluntary payment of £6.3m to WealthTek clients who have a shortfall in the funds they have been able to recover.
In the second case, the regulator fined Barclays Bank PLC £39.3m for money laundering risk management failings related to its provision of banking services to Stunt & Co.
failed to collect sufficient information or carry out proper ongoing monitoring, the FCA said, and in just over a year, Stunt & Co received £46.8m from Fowler Oldfield, a multimillion-pound money laundering operation.
Even after receiving information from law enforcement about suspected money laundering and after learning that the police had raided both firms, Barclays did not properly reassess the money laundering risks.
The bank only conducted a review of its exposure to Fowler Oldfield through its customers, including Stunt & Co, on learning that the FCA was set to prosecute NatWest over its relationship with Fowler Oldfield.
The watchdog said that by providing banking services to Stunt & Co, Barclays facilitated the movement of funds linked to financial crime.
As covered by Vixio, in March 2025 the NatWest case resulted in the convictions of four UK nationals, Gregory Frankel, Daniel Rawson, Haroon Rashid and Arjun Babber, for laundering £266m in cash via the bank.
According to West Yorkshire Police, the offences took place between 2014 and 2016, when Frankel was using his Bradford-based jewellery shop, Fowler Oldfield, to launder cash for criminal networks across the UK.
Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, noted that Barclays had secured a significant reduction in both fines by cooperating with the investigation and making a voluntary payment to affected WealthTek customers.
Emphasising financial crime controls
The FCA has made combating financial crime a priority for the UK’s financial services and payments sectors.
Just this week, it joined the National Crime Agency (NCA) in announcing nine economic crime priorities, with a strong focus on combating fraud and its enablers.
When announcing the enforcement action against Barclays, Chambers emphasised that the regulator takes lapses in compliance in this area extremely seriously, noting the impact of money laundering and other criminal activity.
“The consequences of poor financial crime controls are very real – they allow criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes, and they allow fraudsters to defraud consumers”, she said.
“Banks need to take responsibility and act promptly, particularly when obvious risks are brought to their attention.”
Despite increased regulatory attention, financial crime appears to be worsening in the UK, with fraud now accounting for more than 40 percent of all crime.
The 2025 National Risk Assessment found that the fintech sector is particularly vulnerable to financial crime, with the government also flagging fraud as a particular challenge.
Electronic money institutions (EMIs) and payment service providers (PSPs) are now considered high risk for both money laundering and terrorist financing, up from medium in the previous assessment.
Industry failings to implement risk management practices have added to the FCA’s concerns.
Earlier this year, the regulator conducted a review of 14 e-money and payments firms and found that none met its standards for risk management frameworks and wind-down plans.
The Barclays fines and the UK authorities’ continued emphasis on financial crime should serve as a clear motivator for EMIs, PSPs and other financial institutions to review their compliance and ensure there are no gaps.
Any failings uncovered by the FCA or other agencies will be met with severe penalties as the UK seeks to take on the significant problem of financial crime.
