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Barclays launches review after FIFA probe

London - Barclays launched an internal review into whether its accounts were used for corrupt payments by FIFA officials, a banking source said on Sunday.

It comes after the British bank was named in a US investigation into corruption at football's world governing body, in which seven FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich a few days ago.

The source would not give any further details, and a Barclays spokesperson declined to comment.

Barclays was among three banks with British headquarters named in the US indictment, which outlined how tens of millions of dollars were hidden in offshore accounts.

Another, Standard Chartered, said in a statement on Friday: "We are aware that two payments cleared by Standard Chartered are mentioned in the indictment. We are looking into those payments."

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The third named bank, HSBC, has so far declined to comment.

Britain's Serious Fraud Office said on Friday that it "continues actively to assess material in its possession and has made plain that it stands ready to assist ongoing international criminal investigations".

US authorities have so far indicted 14 people, including the seven FIFA officials held on Wednesday, on charges of involvement in $150m of bribes for sports media contracts.

A senior US legal official has said more indictments are likely.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said earlier that he was "shocked" at the way the US judiciary had targeted football's world body and slammed what he called a "hate" campaign by Europe's football leaders.


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