The Barclays issue is seen by commentators as a critical test of the FCA’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime, which requires officials to be directly accountable for misconduct on their watch. It also raises questions over the shielding of whistle-blowers.

"Protecting whistle-blowers is an integral part of keeping the system healthy and working, and so the response by the FCA very much sends the wrong signal to the financial industry, and is in the long run counterproductive for the entire sector," said Tom Kirchmaier, a research economist at the London School of Economics.

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