Barclays Is Said to Be Probed by U.K. on Qatar Investment-Fee Disclosures

Barclays is being investigated over whether it adequately disclosed fees it agreed to pay to the Qatar Investment Authority as it sought to raise money from investors including the sovereign wealth fund, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

'The bank entered into an agreement for the provision of advisory services by Qatar Investment Authority to Barclays in the Middle East', the lender said in a June 2008 statement detailing the fundraising. Britain’s Financial Services Authority is probing whether that disclosure was adequate, said the person, who declined to be identified because the terms of the investigation are private.

Bloomberg reports that Barclays’s attempts to put its regulatory troubles behind it in the wake of last month’s record fine for manipulating Libor were complicated today by its disclosure that four current and former senior employees, including Finance Director Chris Lucas, were being probed by the FSA. The bank made the disclosure Friday as it reported first-half profit that beatanalyst estimates.

'We are sorry for what has happened', Chairman Marcus Agius said in a statement. 'However, our leadership continues to focus on the delivery of our financial performance targets'.

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Barclays’s Lucas Probed in U.K. on Capital-Raise Fee Disclosure

Reuters also reports that Aguis has also said Friday that 'investigations like this happen frequently.the fact it's been disclosed is at our request. One of the people named is our finance director. We would prefer for this disclosure to be made'.