Barclays Share Price (BARC)

Also KYC(ID&V) for account holders has come under scrutiny from the regulator (all banks not just Barclays)

If you opened an account 33 years ago and havent updated your ID, they are likely asking for a refresh of that.

There will be a reason, I dont suspect they are just freezing bank accounts for the fun of it (the regulator wouldnt like that either!!)

If authorities suspect fraud or money laundering they can instruct a bank to freeze an account, and the bank aren't allowed to tell you why. Doesn't sound like this is the situation here but you are wrong, accounts can be frozen by the bank and give no reason

In fact Barclays share capital has recently increased by 60m undoing almost 15% of the last buy-back. You can see why investors don't like this stock.

Pity Barclays couldn't have just bought the stake from Qatar. They have the capital and a cheap of doing a buy-back. i guess too hard to get the necessary consents.

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Citigroup and Bank of America were left holding some shares in Barclays after they could not identify enough demand for a 510 million pound ($642 million) stake sold by Qatar Holding, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The two bookrunners on the block trade set out on Monday to sell a 2.3% stake in the bank in a move by Qatar to cut back on its crisis-era investment in Britain's Barclays, which is struggling to reinvigorate its share price.

Barclays, BofA and Citigroup declined to comment. Qatar Holding did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of normal business hours.

Reuters could not establish what portion of the stake sold by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund the two banks were left holding. The banks may sell the shares over time.

The banks priced the deal at 141 pence, a 1.4% discount to the Barclays closing share price, at 2120 GMT on Monday, a source close to the matter previously told Reuters.

However, only part of the offer was placed with investors, with the rest left with the investment banks, the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Shares in Barclays fell as much as 4.5% on Tuesday morning on the back of the block trade and closed around 2.5% down.

Qatar became Barclays' largest shareholder during the 2008 financial crisis when it injected 4 billion pounds into the UK bank in a deal that helped avert a taxpayer bailout. It remains a significant shareholder in the bank after Monday's sale.

Britain's financial watchdog later fined Barclays $55 million for fees paid to Qatari entities in the 2008 fundraising, which Barclays said it would appeal.

Barclays this year began working on plans to save as much as 1 billion pounds, which could involve cutting as many as 2,000 jobs, mainly in its back office, Reuters reported last month.

It is also selling its consumer finance unit in Germany and considering selling a stake in its domestic merchant services business, Reuters previously reported.

Barclays has also expressed interest in acquiring Tesco's banking business. ($1 = 0.7945 pounds)