Barclays to Pay $97 Million to Settle SEC's Allegations of Overbilling
May 10 2017 - 5:18PM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford and Dave Michaels
Barclays PLC agreed to pay $97 million to settle claims that its
former wealth-management business overcharged thousands of clients
on advisory fees and mutual-fund sales charges, the Securities and
Exchange Commission said Wednesday.
The SEC said that between 2010 and 2015, the Barclays unit
improperly collected fees from clients for services it didn't
perform. The business, which Barclays has since sold, failed to
oversee third-party managers who invested client money elsewhere
but still charged customers for monitoring the performance, the SEC
said.
The agency also said the company recommended more expensive
share classes to retirement-plan participants when cheaper share
classes were available.
Barclays, based in London, agreed to pay the penalty without
admitting or denying wrongdoing. A spokesman for the bank declined
to comment.
Barclays will pay $93.5 million, including $13.8 million in
interest and a $30 million penalty, to a fund that will return
money to harmed clients. The company will also directly refund $3.5
million to certain advisory and brokerage clients.
"Barclays failed to ensure that clients were receiving the
services they were paying for," said C. Dabney O'Riordan, co-chief
of the SEC enforcement division's asset-management unit. "Each set
of clients who were harmed are being refunded through the
settlement."
In 2015, Barclays agreed to sell its U.S. wealth and investment
management unit to Stifel Financial Corp.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com and Dave
Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 10, 2017 17:03 ET (21:03 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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