* FINRA says retail brokerage customers were harmed
* Thousands not warned about transaction costs - regulator
* No admission of wrongdoing (Adds details of allegations, comment, byline)
By Jonathan Stempel
Dec 29 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc will pay more than$13.75 million to settle U.S. regulatory charges that it letretail brokerage customers make unsuitable mutual fundtransactions, including more than 6,100 fund switches, over afive-year period.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Tuesday saidthe London-based bank's Barclays Capital Inc unit will pay morethan $10 million in restitution, including interest, to affectedcustomers, and was fined $3.75 million.
Barclays did not admit or deny wrongdoing in agreeing to thesettlement, which includes a censure. A spokesman had noimmediate comment.
FINRA said that from January 2010 to June 2015, Barclays'inadequate supervisory procedures failed to stop many customersfrom swapping one mutual fund for another when the benefits ofswitching might be undermined by the transaction costs.
This caused $8.63 million of harm to customers, most of whomwere not warned of such costs, the regulator said.
FINRA also said that from March to August 2014, Barclaysprocessed 1,723 fund transactions, or 39 percent of those itreviewed, that were inconsistent with its customers' goals, risktolerance or other investments. It said 343 of thesetransactions caused more than $818,000 of customer harm.
During the same period, Barclays also failed to provide"breakpoint" discounts to reduce front-end sales charges on 98large purchases of Class A fund shares, FINRA said.
"The proper supervision of mutual fund switching andbreakpoint discounts is essential to the protection of retailmutual fund investors," FINRA enforcement chief Brad Bennettsaid in a statement. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing byBernadette Baum and Meredith Mazzilli)