Barclays has been accused of ditching clients born in countries the bank considers to be high-risk. Reports suggest the bank has made this move as it was concerned it may not be able to satisfy regulators on its anti-money laundering processes, following regulatory scrutiny by the Financial Conduct Authority in November for failing to do due diligence and proper crime checks on a deal involving wealth clients and politically exposed persons. The FCA said that Barclays’ failure to properly investigate potential risks posed by Russian oligarchs could have led to “serious reputational damage” if they had found out.
Barclays has been accused of ditching clients born in countries the bank considers to be high-risk. Reports suggest the bank has made this move as it was concerned it may not be able to satisfy regulators on its anti-money laundering processes, following regulatory scrutiny by the Financial Conduct Authority in November for failing to do due diligence and proper crime checks on a deal involving wealth clients and politically exposed persons. Barclays insists there is no policy of "wholesale exiting" of clients but instead on a case-by-case basis.