Barclays’ latest results impacted by weak markets unit
(26 October 2017 – United Kingdom) Barclays reported that its third-quarter profits were up by 31 percent to £1.1 billion (A$1.8 billion), giving the bank a profit for the nine months so far of £3.4 billion.
However, its investment banking profits decreased from £1 billion to £652 million.
Weak profits in investment banking are widespread, as activity in bond markets is muted against a background of abnormally low interest rates, which make it difficult for banks to slice off profits.
Barclays, however, said profits growth had been driven by a £932 million reduction in operating expenses and its performance had been encouraging.
Its UK banking division saw an improvement in profitability and what it said was a "good underlying return" from its consumer, cards and payments business.
Staley said these results were important as they were the first for many years in which "we have not been in some state of restructuring".
They were also helped by an absence of further provision for payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling.
In the first six months of the year, the bank set aside £700 million. Its total provisions for PPI stand at £9.1 billion.
To comply with new ring-fencing laws, the bank also confirmed it was setting up a separate UK banking division to keep its day-to-day banking operations apart from the riskier investment banking.
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