Barclays fined £26m over gold price fixing

Barclays is the first bank to be fined over attempted manipulation of the 95-year-old London gold market daily “fix”, although a source familiar with the fine said it was a one-off and not part of a wider investigation into gold price rigging. It marks another blow to Barclays’ attempts to put past problems behind it.

The Financial Conduct Authority said yesterday there were failings at Barclays from 2004 until 2013, but the key event occurred on June 28, 2012, a day after UK and US regulators fined it $450m over attempted Libor rigging.

“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,” said Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime.

The FCA said it had banned former Barclays trader Daniel James Plunkett and fined him £95,600 for exploiting weaknesses in the bank’s systems.

“Plunkett’s actions came the day after the publication of our Libor and Euribor action against Barclays.

“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,” McDermott said.

Plunkett fixed the price in order to avoid the payment of $3.9m to a customer under an option, which boosted his own trading book by $1.75m, the FCA said. The bank later compensated the client in full.

Plunkett was a director on the precious metals desk at Barclays.