Barclays fined $298 mn over sanctions breach

British banking major Barclays has agreed to pay $298 million (190 million pounds) to US authorities to settle investigations about payments that the bank facilitated to countries facing government sanctions, says a media report.

Barclays is the latest in a string of European banks to be hit with such charges after it allowed financial transactions between nations facing economic and trade sanctions from the US government.

Lloyds Banking Group, its UK rival, and Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank, have reached similar settlements over the past year.

Citing a court document, Financial Times said that the US prosecutors had revealed that Barclays had facilitated payments by countries including – but not limited to – Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma. These countries were facing economic and trade sanctions from the US government at the time the payments were made.

The US authorities said Barclays had "knowingly and wilfully facilitated US dollar transactions" for a number of parties and countries that were under sanction by the US Treasury, the report noted.

According to the publication, the settlement is expected to be approved by the US Department of Justice within days. Barclays has agreed to pay the charges, which relate to payments made by the bank between 1995 and 2006.

The banking entity said that it had set aside 194 million pounds to resolve the US investigation when it released first-half results earlier this month.

The probe into Barclays, Lloyds and Credit Suisse came to light in 2008 after federal US and New York authorities launched a rare joint investigation into whether the banks purposely removed information about the origin and destination of transactions that touched the US banking system.