Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) announced today that it has imposed an administrative fine of €1,650,000 on Barclays PLC.

The reason for this fine was a breach of supervisory duties in connection with contraventions of the German Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz – WpHG). Between June 2022 and March 2023, Barclays PLC failed in 26 cases to submit voting rights notifications regarding a single issuer within the prescribed period.

Shareholders must notify the issuer and BaFin within four trading days if their voting rights reach certain thresholds.

The obligation to submit voting rights notifications helps to ensure transparency in the capital market.

If parties subject to the notification requirements fail to notify the issuer and BaFin within the prescribed period that their shares have reached, exceeded or fallen below certain thresholds, they contravene section 33 et seq. of the WpHG. BaFin may impose an administrative fine in such a case, either for each individual contravention or for a breach of supervisory duties.

When imposed on a legal entity, the highest possible fine is €10 million or up to 5% of total revenue. In this case, the fine was imposed for a breach of supervisory duties. This means that the company did not take sufficient organisational measures to prevent or significantly impede the contraventions.