WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced an order filing and simultaneously settling charges against Barclays Bank PLC for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations relating to swap reporting. Barclays is registered with the CFTC as a swap dealer. 

The order requires Barclays to pay a $4 million civil monetary penalty, cease and desist from violating the applicable provisions of the CEA and CFTC regulations, and comply with certain conditions and undertakings. Barclays admitted the facts in the order and acknowledged its conduct violated the CEA and CFTC regulations.

“Over the last year, the CFTC has imposed over $60 million in penalties on six registered swap dealers, including Barclays here, in connection with swap data reporting violations,” said Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley. “This resolution, which also includes admissions, reflects the division’s ongoing commitment to ensure the costs of violating the law outweigh the costs of compliance.”

Case Background

According to the order, from 2018 through 2023, Barclays failed to correctly report, or failed to timely report, millions of swap transactions in violation of the CEA and CFTC regulations.

The reporting failures during the relevant period included misreporting due to the use of a duplicate swap identifier; incorrect reporting of primary economic terms; misreported time stamps; errors in connection with continuation data reporting; and late reporting.

In total, aggregating all the categories of conduct, Barclays either did not correctly report, or did not timely report, more than five million swap transactions throughout 2018 to 2023. 

In accepting Barclays’ Offer of Settlement, the CFTC recognized Barclays’ substantial cooperation during the Division of Enforcement’s investigation. Barclays’ cooperation included proactively flagging swap reporting issues for the CFTC during the investigation, and voluntarily providing detailed and specific information regarding the violations described in the order. 

The CFTC also acknowledges Barclays’ representations concerning its remediation for this matter. This remediation includes voluntarily engaging third-party vendors to review and validate Barclays’ swap reporting processes. 

The CFTC notes Barclays’ cooperation and remediation are recognized in the form of a reduced civil monetary penalty.

The Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this action are Jason T. Wright, A. Daniel Ullman II, and Paul G. Hayeck, and former staff member Lauren Bennett.

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Customers and other individuals can report suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, to the Division of Enforcement via a toll-free hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382), file a tip or complaint online, or contact the Whistleblower Office. Whistleblowers may be eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected, paid from the CFTC Customer Protection Fund financed through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the Commodity Exchange Act.