Barclays Plc, whose three most senior officials resigned afterthe lender was fined for rigging Libor, said Finance Director ChrisLucas is being probed by regulators with regards to a fundraisingfour years ago.

The U.K. Financial Services Authority is investigating fourcurrent and former senior employees, including Lucas, over thedisclosure of fees related to the bank's capital raisings in 2008,Barclays said in a statement today as it released first- halfearnings. The bank also disclosed a further three lawsuits linkedto its alleged manipulation of global interest rates.

“The FSA is investigating the sufficiency of disclosure inrelation to fees payable under certain commercial agreements andwhether these may have related to Barclays capital raisings in Juneand November 2008,” the bank said in the statement.

The FSA investigation does not relate to a 66 million-pound($104 million) payment to Qatar Holding LLC mentioned in a November2008 prospectus, Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius said on a call withjournalists today. Agius said Lucas's name was deliberatelydisclosed by Barclays as the information was potentiallymarket-moving, and said investigations such as this occur“routinely.”

He said the fees had been mentioned in prospectus documents,without specifying which ones.

Shares of Barclays jumped as much as 7.6 percent today, the mostin six weeks, after the company's first-half earnings beatanalysts' estimates.

The stock was up 6.4 percent to 163.45 pence at 1:12 p.m. inLondon, where the company is based. Barclays shares are still downabout 17 percent since the company's record 290 million- pound finefor rigging interest rates was disclosed a month ago.

Barclays raised 7 billion pounds of capital from investorsincluding the Abu Dhabi and Qatar sovereign wealth funds as thefinancial crisis worsened in 2008, helping the bank avoid agovernment bailout. The U.K. government was spending 66 billionpounds buying shares in Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank ofScotland to rescue the lenders at the time.

The 66-million-pound Qatar payment was “for having arrangedcertain of the subscriptions in the capital raising,” Barclays saidin the November 2008 prospectus.

Roger Jenkins, former head of Barclays's structured capitalmarkets unit, received a bonus of more than 30 million pounds forhelping to broker the investments, while Amanda Staveley of PCPCapital Partners was paid a 40 million-pound commission for heradvice, the New York Times reported in November 2008.

'Satisfied' Obligations

“Barclays considers that it satisfied its disclosure obligationsand confirms that it will cooperate fully with the FSA'sinvestigation,” the bank said today.

Barclays Chief Executive Officer Robert Diamond, Agius and ChiefOperating Officer Jerry Del Missier all said they would step downafter the bank last month paid a record 290 million- pound fine toregulators for rigging global interest rates. Barclays has openedan internal review into its business practices, led by AnthonySalz, an executive vice chairman at Rothschild and former corporatelawyer.

FSA spokesman Liam Parker declined to comment. Barclaysspokesman Giles Croot declined to expand upon the bank's statement.Spokesmen for Staveley and Jenkins were not immediately availableto comment.

First-half pretax profit excluding one-time items rose 13percent to 4.23 billion pounds, Barclays reported today, beatinganalysts' estimates, amid fewer bad loans at the consumer bank andmarket-share gains in investment banking.

Total revenue at the investment bank increased 4 percent in thefirst half from the year-earlier period to 5 billion pounds, asrevenue from fixed income, currency and commodities, known as FICC,jumped 11 percent. The division's adjusted pretax profit rose to2.6 billion pounds in the half from 2.4 billion pounds.

Bloomberg

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