Barclays profits up as bad debt costs fall
Barclays reported a five per cent rise in underlying quarterly profit as lower charges for bad debt at the bank offset a third consecutive sharp fall in investment banking revenues as the euro zone financial crisis deepened.
Barclays said it did not intend to raise any equity capital.
It said pre-tax profit in the three months to end-September was £2.4bn. Stripping out a gain on the value of its own debt and other one-off items, profit was £1.34bn, up five per cent on the 2010 period.
Top-line income at Barclays Capital, the investment bank arm that provides the bulk of the bank’s profit, fell to £2.25bn, down from 22 per cent from the second quarter to be in line with the consensus forecast as capital markets activity has been hit hard across the industry.