Ringfencing

At the weekend Barclays transferred its UK retail and “small enterprise” (turnover less than GBP 6.5m) business banking customers to a new entity, Barclays Bank UK PLC, using a “ring-fencing transfer scheme” under FSMA Part VII.  The existing entity retains the investment bank side. Other UK D-SIBs will follow suit during 2018.  Readers will remember that FSMA was amended in 2013 to require the ring-fencing of “core activities” to ensure “as far as reasonably practicable that the carrying on of core activities by a ring-fenced body is not adversely affected by the acts or omissions of other members of its group”; “core activities”’ being defined as the regulated activity of accepting deposits. Grant Thornton’s 548 page report under FSMA section 109A contains a detailed analysis of the risk profile of the Barclays Group and of the effect of the ring-fencing on a vast range of stakeholders.