Barclays accused of handling looted funds

Barclays is reported to have handled more than £110m suspected to have been looted from the Nigerian Treasury.

A British broadsheet claims London has become one of the world's major money laundering capitals.

The Financial Services Authority said in March it had found "significant control weaknesses" at 15 UK banks.

But the FSA did not name any of the banks involved with handling accounts linked to the regime of General Sani Abacha.

The newspaper says Swiss and US authorities have investigated and publicly denounced banks in their countries which handled Abacha money.

Credit Suisse and Citibank were among the banks reprimanded, it notes.

The Guardian says its journalists have traced more than £400m in specific banking transactions through London linked to the Abacha regime.

The newspaper says this includes dealings with Natwest and HSBC, as well as French, US and Nigerian banks.

It adds that Barclays said it had 'routinely' tightened its money laundering controls, "upgrading them... to bring them into line with established best practice".