Barclays has temporarily halted market making in some of its own debt securities following a trading blunder, the British bank said on Friday.
Barclays disclosed on March 28 that it had exceeded a U.S. limit on sales of structured products, triggering a loss and a potential restatement of 2021 accounts of two units. While those numbers are being prepared, the bank will not be trading in securities of those units.
"Barclays will continue to evaluate the extent to which it can resume market making in any such individual security," the bank said on Friday.
The disruption is a further setback for Barclays' new Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan, who has already had to put on hold a $1.25 billion share buyback plan due to ongoing talks with U.S. regulators over the error.
The lender said the trading mishap would impact the accounts of both the Barclays Plc group and its subsidiary Barclays Bank Plc - which houses its investment bank - and as such, market making in debt securities of both entities would be suspended.
It was not immediately clear how the suspension would impact the trading of Barclays debt, with 33.6 billion pounds ($42.26 billion) of debt due to be refinanced this year, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
Barclays said on Thursday it was working with U.S.
authorities to file amended accounts as soon as practicable.
"This is seen as a short-term suspension of market-making activity which should be "fixed" in short order. As such, if that assumption is correct, then there should be no overly material impact," said Ian Gordon, banking analyst at Investec.
Barclays declined to comment beyond its statement.
($1 = 0.7952 pounds)
(Reporting By Lawrence White, Iain Withers and Lucy Raitano; Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi)
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU