Barclays investment bank profit up 35%
(31 July 2015 – Britain) Barclays Plc showed an increase in second-quarter profit of 35 percent, with pre-tax profit rising to £765 million (A$1632 million) from £567 million the same time a year ago.
The investment bank’s operating expenses fell 14 percent to £1.37 billion while litigation expenses also fell.
“I am personally pleased with recent progress in the investment bank,” chairman John McFarlane said in the statement on 29 July.
“The challenge of the team is to convert this performance into sustainable economic returns through subsequent period.”
The bank posted an 11 percent drop in investment-banking fees, which include mergers and acquisitions.
Equities and credit revenue was almost flat in the quarter, while Barclays said income from the trimmed-down rates and currency businesses rose 10 percent, benefiting from volatile price movements related to Greece.
McFarlane took control of the investment bank himself after firing chief executive Antony Jenkins earlier in July, promising to increase revenue and double the share price over the next three or four years.
McFarlane plans to focus on the debt and equity capital markets businesses and the advisory arm, and is likely to cut the less profitable and more capital-intensive fixed income, commodities and currencies trading businesses.
Britain’s second-biggest bank and its European peers are in the process of cutting back their debt trading operations as stricter capital rules weigh on the business.
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