FOREX NEW YORK COMPANIES

Barclays was engulfed by a fresh crisis on Friday when it admitted that its finance director, Chris Lucas, is under investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in relation to funds raised in 2008.

The latest potential run-in with the regulators comes as the bank scrambles to pick up the pieces over the Libor rate-fixing scandal, which has already led to the resignations of four top directors at the bank.

As it announced £759m in pre-tax profits, down 71% from £2.6bn last year, the bank suggested that the FSA was investigating whether all the fees had been disclosed in two fundraisings that took place to help the bank avoid a bailout by the taxpayer. Barclays sources insisted that it did not involve payments to any current or former staff.

The FSA had "commenced an investigation involving Barclays and four current and former senior employees, including Chris Lucas", the bank said.

"The FSA is investigating the sufficiency of disclosure in relation to fees payable under certain commercial agreements and whether these may have related to Barclays capital raisings in June and November 2008. Barclays considers that it satisfied its disclosure obligations and confirms that it will co-operate fully with the FSA's investigation."

In a terse conference call with journalists – the bank avoided face-to-face encounters, citing transport difficulties in London as a result of the Olympics – the bank's chairman, Marcus Agius, refused to provide more details, cutting off questions with a curt "enough".

Despite the focus on the new FSA investigation, Barclays shares were the biggest risers in the FTSE 100 as the City welcomed the news that its "adjusted" profit before tax of £4.3bn, which was up 13% and stripped out a credit charge on its own debt of £2.9bn, had beaten expectations.

Ian Gordon, a bank analyst at Investec, said: "This is one in the eye today for Barclays' many enemies and detractors."

Agius once again apologised for the Libor scandal, which has left the bank facing a £290m fine and braced for a wave of litigation that took up an entire page of disclosure in the half-year results. Barclays also admitted that it was taking a provision of £450m for the interest rate swap products that were sold to small businesses but are now being investigated by the FSA.

The FSA's investigators are focusing on a fundraising in June 2008, when the bank raised £4.5bn through an issue of new shares, and a second fundraising, in November 2008, when it raised more than £7bn from largely Middle Eastern investors. It is understood that the key paragraphs being scrutinised by the FSA were in documents linked to the June 2008 fundraising, which cited "an agreement for provision of advisory services" by Qatar Investment Authority to Barclays in the Middle East and "to have agreed to explore opportunities for a co-operative business relationship" with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Another paragraph says: "Barclays and Qatar Holding have entered into an agreement for the provision of advisory services by Qatar Holding to Barclays in the Middle East." The total fees disclosed were about £100m.

In the separate November 2008 fundraising, it provided five separate disclosures of fees that amounted in total to around £300m.

Agius resigned in the wake of the Libor scandal, but was temporarily reinstated when chief executive Bob Diamond was forced out by regulators. Agius had been expected to appoint the new chief executive, but said that his successor would be named before Diamond's replacement.

Agius refused to let Lucas respond to questions about whether he had offered to resign over the Libor scandal.

"We are sorry for the issues that have emerged over recent weeks and recognise that we have disappointed our customers and shareholders. I speak for all of Barclays people when I say how determined we are to regain the full confidence of all our stakeholders – customers and clients, investors, regulators and staff alike," Agius said.

Agius's departure will follow that of Diamond, the chief operating officer, Jerry del Missier, who has received a near-£9m cash payoff, and the non-executive director Alison Carnwath, who resigned earlier this week. Agius refused to comment on Del Missier's payoff.

The investigation into the way fees were disclosed by Barclays during its fundraising in 2008 started in the last few weeks and is thought to be many months from completion.

By announcing Chris Lucas as one of "four current and former senior employees" being investigated by the Financial Services Authority, the bank is ensuring that as much information as possible about its dealings with regulators has been made public after its fine for attempting to manipulate interest rates. It is not known who the other three are. In 2008 the fundraising was crucial in ensuring Barclays was able to avoid a taxpayer bailout.

Roger Jenkins, the high profile banker who left Barclays in 2009, was credited with playing a key role in introducing the Qatar investors to the fundraising. He worked with John Varley, who was the then chief executive of Barclays, in putting together the complex but crucial fundraising.

A row was sparked with shareholders who were not offered the chance to buy new shares being issued through what are known as pre-emption rights – and hence risked diluting their influence over the company.

Despite decades of investment by governments of all colours, British policy makers had realised by the 1990s that attempts to regenerate through development alone would not solve the problem of social deprivation.

Though these wider social issues and the role of the private and voluntary sectors in sparking regeneration were acknowledged, the relative buoyancy of the country's finances well into the 2000s meant that investment still flowed.

As we're used to hearing by now, times have changed and belts must tighten. Making the most of social capital is no longer a bonus, it's a necessity.

Whitehall has finally accepted the message. Issues historically addressed by allocating a central budget are now being considered in new ways, and giving rise to different questions. Is there community solution? Maybe direct public sector intervention isn't the best answer? Perhaps someone else could do it better? There's a long way to go, but it's a start.

Communities have demonstrated themselves capable of running their own small-scale regeneration projects. Social enterprises such as the Coin Street Community Builders, originally formed in protest to a "one size fits all" regeneration plan, have transformed part of London's South Bank into a thriving mixed-use development.

Elsewhere, community feeling might not be so visible, or even existing, but it's down to local leaders to identify and nurture it where they can. At the very least, they can ensure that solutions that run contrary to local priorities aren't imposed.

We believe that local government leaders have a vital role to play in leading local regeneration efforts, as champions of the local community, directly accountable to the electorate and operating from a position far closer to residents than central government and its agencies. But local leadership comes in many forms, from parish councils to volunteers and business leaders, and none should be held back.

Throughout our research we found a multitude of interesting and diverse approaches. Respecting and facilitating a variety of policy solutions to meet local needs is a core part of the localist ideal. It is a principle that all levels of government, from parish councils up to government departments, must never stop reminding themselves of.

Given the challenges facing the country over the coming years, regeneration efforts are more vital now than ever before.

It's a challenging policy area to tackle, but would-be regenerators need to think holistically, and that means involving and making the most of their communities – because it turns out that money can't buy you regeneration.

Steven Howell is a senior policy officer at the thinktank Localis and author of Grow your own way, a report looking at local approaches to regeneration

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Join the local government network for more comment, analysis and the latest job vacancies