Jimboka said:
Why are you anti Barclays? Ive been with them 30 years and never had a problem. They didn't take any government bailouts. Good business if you ask me. I guess bank bashing by the envious is fashionable at the moment...
Barclays have a history of unethical banking practices dealing: But hey ho, when has ethics ever had anything to do with making money?
OK I know it's from wiki but for a "one stop" reference page to Barclays history I reckon it has covered it quite well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclays_Bank"Involvement with South Africa under apartheid
Barclays bank was known overseas in the financial industry in the 1980s as 'Boerclaysbank', due to its continued involvement in South Africa during the apartheid regime.
In 2006, a South African activist group, the Jubilee South Africa backed Khulumani Support Group, sought reparations from Barclays in addition to Citigroup, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Ford, GM, and Deutsche Bank for their roles indirectly supporting the apartheid government in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. The legal proceedings are being heard at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, and the South African Ministry of Justice is seeking dismissal of the case on the grounds that it undermines its national sovereignty.
Financial support for the government in Zimbabwe
Barclays helps to fund President Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe. The most controversial of a set of loans provided by Barclays is the £30m it gives to help sustain land reforms that saw Mugabe seize white-owned farmland and drive more than 100,000 black workers from their homes. Opponents have called the bank's involvement a 'disgrace' and an 'insult' to the millions who have suffered human rights abuses. Barclays spokesmen say the bank has had customers in Zimbabwe for decades and abandoning them now would make matters worse, "We are committed to continuing to provide a service to those customers in what is clearly a difficult operating environment".
Barclays also provides two of Mugabe’s associates with bank accounts, ignoring European Union sanctions on Zimbabwe.[81] The men are Elliot Manyika and minister of public service Nicholas Goche. Barclays has defended its position by insisting that the EU rules do not apply to its 67%-owned Zimbabwean subsidiary because it was incorporated outside the EU.[82]
Accusations of money laundering
In March 2009, Barclays was accused of violating international anti-money laundering laws. According to the NGO Global Witness, the Paris branch of Barclays held the account of Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang's son, Teodorin Obiang, even after evidence that Obiang had siphoned oil revenues from government funds emerged in 2004. According to Global Witness, Obiang purchased a Ferrari and maintains a mansion in Malibu with the funds from this account.
A 2010 report by the Wall Street Journal described how Credit Suisse, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, and other banks were involved in helping the Alavi Foundation, Bank Melli, the Iranian government, and/or others circumvent US laws banning financial transactions with certain states. They did this by 'stripping' information out of wire transfers, thereby concealing the source of funds. Barclays settled with the government for US$298 million.[84]
Senior management bonuses
Bob Diamond, then the head of Barclays Capital, was set to receive a £14.8m bonus in 2008, as Barclays Capital made a profit of £2.3bn in the year, despite the subprime mortgage crisis in the US forcing the division to take a £1.6bn hit in 2007.[85]
Tax avoidance
In March 2009, Barclays obtained an injunction against The Guardian to remove from its website confidential leaked documents describing how SCM, Barclays' structured capital markets division, planned to use more than £11bn of loans to create hundreds of millions of pounds of tax benefits, via "an elaborate circuit of Cayman Islands companies, US partnerships and Luxembourg subsidiaries".[86] In an editorial on the issue, The Guardian pointed out that, due to the mismatch of resources, tax-collectors (HMRC) have now to rely on websites such as WikiLeaks to obtain such documents,[87] and indeed the documents in question have now appeared on WikiLeaks.[88][89] Separately, another Barclays whistleblower revealed several days later that the SCM transactions had produced between £900m and £1bn in tax avoidance in one year, adding that "The deals start with tax and then commercial purpose is added to them.
[edit] 2012 tax repaymentIn February 2012 Barclays was forced to pay back £500 million in tax which it had tried to avoid. Barclays was accused by HMRC of designing two schemes that were intended to avoid substantial amounts of tax. Tax rules forced the bank to tell the UK authorities about its plans.
David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said that "We do not take today's action lightly, but the potential tax loss from this scheme and the history of previous abuse in this area mean that this is a circumstance where the decision to change the law with full retrospective effect is justified.
One tax scheme involved Barclays claiming it should not have to pay corporation tax on profits made when buying back its own IOUs. The second tax avoidance scheme, also designed by Barclays, involved investment funds claiming that non-taxable income entitled the funds to tax credits that could be reclaimed from HMRC. The treasury described this as "an attempt to secure 'repayment' from the Exchequer of tax that has not been paid".
Conflicts of interest
In a 2011 Delaware Chancery Court decision, Barclays was criticized for failing to disclose conflicts of interest to its client, Del Monte, in connection with Del Monte's buyout, which was led by KKR. Barclays subsequently agreed to pay US$24 million and give up a $22 million fee from Del Monte, as part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought on behalf of Del Monte shareholders.
Customer satisfaction
Barclays was Britain's most complained about bank in the last six months of 2011. Between 1 July and 31 December, the financial ombudsman dealt with 11,524 complaints about Barclays, finding in favour of customers in 84% of cases.[94] The majority of complaints were about the bank's sales of Payment protection insurance (PPI). Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays Retail and Business Banking said that the figures showed a 36% reduction in new cases, which followed a 30% year-on-year reduction in FSA-reportable banking complaints.
Rate-fixing scandal
In June 2012, as a result of an international investigation, Barclays Bank was fined a total of £290 million (US$450 million) for attempting to manipulate the daily settings of London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor). The United States Department of Justice and Barclays officially agreed that "the manipulation of the submissions affected the fixed rates on some occasions". The bank was found to have made 'inappropriate submissions' of rates which formed part of the Libor and Euribor setting processes, sometimes to make a profit, and other times to make the bank look more secure during the financial crisis.[96] This happened between 2005 and 2009, as often as daily.
The BBC said revelations concerning the fraud were "greeted with almost universal astonishment in the banking industry. The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA), which levied a fine of £59.5 million ($92.7 million), gave Barclays the biggest fine it had ever imposed in its history.[97] The FSA's director of enforcement described Barclays' behaviour as "completely unacceptable", adding "Libor is an incredibly important benchmark reference rate, and it is relied on for many, many hundreds of thousands of contracts all over the world."[96] The bank's chief executive Bob Diamond decided to give up his bonus as a result of the fine.[99] Liberal Democrat politician Lord Oakeshott criticised Diamond, saying: "If he had any shame he would go. If the Barclays board has any backbone, they'll sack him."[96] The U.S. Department of Justice has also been involved, with "other financial institutions and individuals" under investigation.[96] On 2 July 2012, Marcus Agius resigned from the chairman position following the interest rate rigging scandal.[100] On 3 July 2012, Bob Diamond resigned with immediate effect, leaving Marcus Agius to fill his post until a replacement is found.[101] Within the space of a few hours, this was followed by the resignation of the Bank's Chief Operating Officer, Jerry del Missier
