Barclays Capital Slammed With $97M Fine for Overcharging Clients

Second, from January 2011 through March 2015, Barclays Capital charged 22,138 client accounts excess fees of approximately $2 million, due to miscalculations and billing errors by the firm.

Barclays also collected excess mutual fund sales charges or fees from 63 brokerage clients by recommending more expensive share classes when less expensive share classes were available, the order states.

"Barclays failed to ensure that clients were receiving the services they were paying for," said C. Dabney O'Riordan, co-chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's Asset Management Unit, in a statement. "Each set of clients who were harmed are being refunded through the settlement."

Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, Barclays agreed to create a Fair Fund to refund advisory fees to harmed clients, which will consist of $49,8 million in disgorgement plus $13.8 million in interest and a $30 million penalty. 

Barclays will directly refund an additional $3.5 million to advisory clients who invested in third-party investment managers and investment strategies that underperformed while going unmonitored, according to the SEC. Those funds also will go to brokerage clients who were steered into more expensive mutual fund share classes.