Barclays Capital

Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays Bank.

PR and Lobbying

Barclays Capital's external lobbying firm is Finsbury.

"Dividend washing" aka tax avoidance planning

In December 2011 an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism uncovered a £65.7bn market in European equity dividends whose "central" purpose is tax avoidance. The bureau revealed how some of London's biggest banks 'are behind a huge tax avoidance trade "cheating" European countries of hundreds of millions of euros a year' in taxes. Its analysis suggests that the loss – mainly to France, Germany and Italy – is up to £500m a year. The banks include Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

Against the backdrop of Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to wield Britain's EU veto to protect the Square Mile, former Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott called for the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Treasury and the European Commission 'to launch an investigation to ensure full disclosure of all dividend arbitrage transactions'.

"The FSA, Treasury and the European commission must work closely together to ensure the whole sequence of transactions of this type is fully disclosed to the British, German and French tax authorities. We must stamp out abusive artificial tax-dodging transactions together with our European partners, and stop pretending they are out to undermine the City of London as a responsible and pre-eminent financial centre."

Contacts

Website:http://www.barcap.com

London Offices: 5 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4BB

Condor House, St Pauls Churchyard, London, EC4M 8AL