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LONDON (Reuters) - John Varley, former chief executive of Barclays (BARC.L), is at the center of a regulatory inquiry into unorthodox payments to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
It said Varley was one of the four current or former executives whom the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is investigating over “advisory fees” paid by the bank to Qatar Holding in 2008.
The payments were linked to the sovereign wealth fund’s participation in an 11 billion pound ($17.5 billion) refinancing of the British bank at the height of the financial crisis.
The probe is likely to reduce the chances of Varley becoming the new Governor of the Bank of England, a post with which he has been linked, the newspaper said.
