Scandals at Barclays have cost the UK bank two chief executives in less than a decade. We take a look at some of the controversies that have plagued the bank since the 2008 financial crisis.

2012: Financial crisis fundraising

The Serious Fraud Office launches an investigation in 2012, and eventually accuses Barclays bankers of funnelling secret fees to Qatari investors in exchange for emergency funding at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

It resulted in the only criminal trial brought against UK banking executives during the financial crisis, and involved four senior bankers, including the chief executive, John Varley. Varley was acquitted by an appeals court in June 2019, while the three remaining executives were found not guilty in a criminal trial in February 2020.

2012: Libor rigging scandal

Barclays is fined for manipulating the benchmark Libor interest rate in 2012, after revelations stretching back to 2005.

The scandal, which engulfed a number of its global banking peers, results in the resignation of its chief executive, Bob Diamond, after just 18 months in the post.

2013: Salz review

An independent review of Barclays’ business practices urges the bank to strengthen its board, cooperate more closely with City watchdogs, and link pay more closely to the bank’s performance after discovering a “winning at all costs” culture at the lender.

2017: Whistleblowing scandal

The chief executive, Jes Staley, is fined almost £650,000 and ordered to repay £500,000 of his bonus for twice attempting to unmask a whistleblower in 2016. Staley used the bank’s internal security unit to try to discover who had written letters to the board regarding a new hire at Barclays, who was also a former friend and colleague of Staley’s at JP Morgan. Staley later apologised to the bank’s board.

2017: KKR dispute

Staley caused a rift between the bank and its private equity client KKR after backing his brother-in-law in a complicated legal dispute with the buyout house. While Staley argued that he was involved in a personal capacity, rather than as chief executive of Barclays, it strained the bank’s relationship with one of its longtime clients.

2020: Staveley lawsuit

Businesswoman Amanda Staveley takes Barclays to court after learning that it had offered her Abu Dhabi client a worse deal than that it offered to Qatari investors when it was seeking emergency funding in 2008.

Staveley lost the court battle in February 2021, despite the judge finding that the bank was “guilty of serious deceit” in the way it raised money to avoid a UK government bailout at the height of the financial crisis.

2020: Epstein investigation

Barclays announces that City regulators have opened an investigation into Staley over his characterisation of his relationship with the sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to Barclays, and “the subsequent description of that relationship in the company’s response to the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority]”.

Staley resigns in November 2021 after being made aware of the preliminary findings of the inquiry, but plans to contest its conclusions.