Barclays Agrees to a $361 Million Settlement to Resolve SEC Charges Relating to Over-Issuances of Securities
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC (BBPLC) in connection with the unregistered offer and sale of an unprecedented amount of securities due to a failure to implement any internal control to track such transactions in real time. Both firms restated their year-end 2021 audited financial statements filed with the Commission as a result of the over-issuances and internal control failure. The firms agreed to pay a $200 million civil penalty and the SEC additionally ordered BBPLC to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of more than $161 million, which was deemed satisfied by an offer of rescission BBPLC made to investors in the unregistered offerings. The SEC’s order states that, following a settled Commission action against a BBPLC affiliate in May 2017, BBPLC lost its status as a well-known seasoned issuer (WKSI). As a result, BBPLC had to quantify the total number of securities that it anticipated offering and selling and pay ...