Tardy Barclays fined $80,000 by ASIC

THE Australian Securities & Investments Commission has levied a fine of $80,000 on Barclays Bank over a case in which the lender took five days to fix the misuse of $13.8 million of clients' money in January last year. 
 
On request from London, the money was incorrectly taken from Barclays' Client Segregated Account when it should have come out of bank funds held in the Australian operation's London house account.
Despite a flurry of emails sent between Sydney, Singapore and London, it took until February 4 for the client account to be compensated for the error.

Barclays state that no client money was lost because of the error, but ASIC's ruling, published yesterday, noted that the withdrawal was a careless act that was then "compounded by the fact that the erroneous withdrawal was not . . . rectified immediately but instead subject to discussions by various Barclays' international offices over at least five business days".

ASIC said the client could have been affected if Barclays had become insolvent during the period. It also noted that although it was Barclays that reported itself to ASIC over the beach, it took until February 14 -- 14 days after it was first identified -- for Barclays to admit the problem, which ASIC called "an unacceptable delay in the circumstances".

A spokesman for Barclays said yesterday Barclays "is committed to the highest levels of integrity and regulatory compliance across all of its operations". He said the bank "takes any breach of regulations very seriously".

theaustralian.com.au 16 Oct 2012

Newsflash: ALL Banks use clients money, not just Tardy Barclays.

The so called line " takes any breach of regulations very seriously", is a joke, as the actions dictate that there is complete disregard for any regulations.

Now it's time for ASIC to pursue other banks, that is if they are really out for justice.

Fraud in the banking circles is called an 'error'.