Barclays celebrated a significant victory over the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) yesterday, as the Crown Court dismissed charges surrounding the bank’s huge capital raising during the financial crisis in 2008.
The SFO claimed that a $3bn (£2.2bn) loan Barclays gave Qatari investors led to the Qatari acquisition of shares in a Barclays fundraising, an arrangement which supposedly prevented the need for a government bailout.
However, under the Companies Act, it is unlawful for banks to lend money to themselves.
During the financial crisis, rival banks such as Lloyds Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland had no other option than to be bailed out by government, ploughing millions into the lenders that were too big to fail.
Despite the charges against Barclays being dismissed yesterday, the SFO has said that it had not reached the end of the road, with a spokesman stating: “We are likely to seek to reinstate the charges by applying to the High Court.”
Barclays was charged with giving “unlawful financial assistance” by the SFO in February, after it raised £4.5bn in June 2008 and £7.3bn in October of that year from investors, including Qatar Holding and Challenger Universal.
Many city analysts have viewed Barclays’ case with the SFO as the most challenging legacy issue that the bank faced stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.
At the end of March this year, Barclays agreed to pay $2bn to settle claims in the US related to the sale of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the crisis. Barclays chief executive Jes Staley said that this settlement was “fair and proportionate” at the time.
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