Barclays more scrutinised than any other UK high street bank

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/20/barclays-fca-more-scrutiny-any-other-uk-bank

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Barclays was subjected to more regulatory attention than any other UK high street bank in 2014, receiving 186 visits from the Financial Conduct Authority’s officials.

The high level of regulatory scrutiny on the bank was revealed by a freedom of information request.

It shows Barclays received more than twice as many visits as HSBC, which was called on by FCA staff 85 times during the year. The data, obtained by Bloomberg, was published following the resignation of Martin Wheatley, the regulator’s boss, last week after he was told his five-year contract was not going to be renewed.

Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, both bailed out by the taxpayer in the wake of the banking crisis, received 65 and 58 visits respectively.

The number of visits are determined by the business mix of each bank. Barclays, for instance, not only has a high street bank and investment banking arm but also a major presence in credit cards through its Barclaycard operations.

All the banks have received fines from the FCA in recent years, although Barclays has been the focus of public attention since the £290m fine for rigging Libor in 2012.

Barclays is now being run by John McFarlane, who is taking an executive role after Antony Jenkins was pushed out as chief executive earlier this month. There is speculation that he wants to accelerate efforts to cut costs, which could lead to more job losses on top of the 19,000 announced last year.

The bank is also gradually phasing out the Woolwich brand it has used for its mortgage products since it bought the former building society 15 years ago.