Barclays to pay £49m over '˜dark pool' case

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the New York Attorney General’s Office said the London-based company had admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay each agency 35 million dollars (£24.5m).

The penalty, along with one of 84.3m dollars (£58.9m) levied on Credit Suisse for similar breaches of US federal securities laws, was one of the highest imposed in a case of its type.

The lawsuit said Barclays deceived investors about its dark pool, an electronic operation where trades take place out of public view.

Barclays, which lost £3bn of its stock market value in one session after the claims were disclosed in June 2014, initially said it intended to defend its position.

A spokesman for the bank, which has extensive operations in the United States, said “the agreement will enable us to focus all of our efforts on serving our clients”.

According to the SEC, the company did not police its dark pool platform for “predatory trading” and also “misrepresented” the type of market data fed into it, including using a mix of direct and slower feeds.