Breaking News

Mike Turner, who ran BAE Systems (BAESY), is resigning from Barclays' (BCS) board of directors as part of a boardroom intended to head off pressure from activist investor Edward Bramson, The Financial Times' David Crow reports. Five of the bank's directors, including chairman John McFarlane, have either stepped down or will leave at its annual meeting in May, the report notes. Reference Link

The U.S. Federal Reserve is weighing placing stricter rules on foreign bank branches to tighten what critics claim is a loophole that has allowed overseas lenders to shield assets from the harshest U.S. bank regulations, Reuters reports, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. The changes being examined could be a blow for banks such as Deutsche Bank (DB), Credit Suisse (CS), and UBS (UBS), which have for years held billions of dollars in assets at their New York branches, the report notes. Other publicly traded companies in the space include Banco Santander (SAN), Barclays (BCS), HSBC (HSBC), ING Group (ING), Lloyds Banking (LYG), and RBS (RBS). Reference Link

Robert Bogucki, a Barclays (BCS) trader accused of defrauding Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) in connection to a GBP6B currency deal related to its takeover of Autonomy, has been acquitted after a judge in California dismissed all charges against him, The Financial Times' Kadhim Shubber reports. The judge dismissed seven charges due to insufficient evidence to show he had any fiduciary duty to HP. Reference Link

A London court heard that top members of Barclays management were concerned that investors in the bank's 2008 emergency fundraising would go "nuts" if Qatar received a better deal unfairly, Reuters' Lawrence White reports. Richard Boath, one of the four ex-Barclays executives on trial over fraud charges, told the company's former Middle East boss Roger Jenkins that they had to be careful to ensure the legality of a plan to pay Qatar additional fees it was demanding in the form of a separate advisory pact, White says. "We can't do a capital markets transaction in which we give one set of fees to one set of investors, and a different set of economics for another set of investors because if they found out they'd go nuts," Boath said he told Jenkins in a recording of a 2014 interview with Britain's Serious Fraud Office played to the jury, according to Reuters. Reference Link

Activist investor Edward Bramson, who has built a 5.5% stake in Barclays (BCS) and is trying to force his way onto the board of directors, funded most of his stake with a $1.4B loan from Bank of America (BAC) through a vehicle called Whistle Investors, The Financial Times' David Crow, Owen Walker and Stephen Morris report. Under a "funded equity collar" arrangement, Bank of America borrowed the Barclays shares and sold them to Bramson while providing him with financing, according to the report. Reference Link