Barclays fined on failure linked to gold price rigging

Scandal-hit Barclays has been fined more than 26 million pounds after a former trader at the bank attempted to manipulate the price of gold, Britain's financial regulator said today.
The Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement that it had fined Barclays 26.03 million pounds (USD 43.87 million, 32.18 million euros) "for failing to adequately manage conflicts of interest between itself and its customers as well as systems and controls failings" in relation to a fixed London pricing of gold over a nine-year period to 2013.
This is a fresh blow for Barclays, which was at the heart of the Libor interest-rate rigging scandal in 2012. The troubled British bank is also facing investigations along with other major lenders over possible manipulation of foreign exchange trades.

Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins expressed "regret" at the outcome.
The FCA said it had fined former Barclays trader Daniel James Plunkett 95,600 pounds and banned him from working within any "regulated activity" after noting that on June 28, 2012, he "exploited the weaknesses in Barclays' systems and controls to seek to influence that day's 3:00 pm Gold Fixing and thereby profited at a customer's expense".
In a separate twist, Plunkett's attempted manipulation occurred the day after the FCA had published its actions against Barclays over Libor.

"The investigation and outcomes in that case meant that the firm, and Plunkett, were clearly on notice of the potential for conflicts of interests around benchmarks," said Tracey McDermott, the FCA's director of enforcement and financial crime.

The benchmark gold fixing price is set twice daily by four banks, including Barclays, at 10:30 am London time (0930 GMT) and 3:00 pm.
"The Gold Fixing is an important price-setting mechanism which provides market users with the opportunity to buy and sell gold at a single quoted price," the FCA said in today's statement.
The price of gold was fixed at 1,291.50 pounds an ounce at 3:00 pm on the London Bullion Market, which compared with USD 1,298.50 at 3:00 pm yesterday.
McDermott said of the latest bad news to hit Barclays: "A firm's lack of controls and a trader's disregard for a customer's interests have allowed the financial services industry's reputation to be sullied again.

"Plunkett has paid a heavy price for putting his own interests above the integrity of the market and Barclays' customer.