Barclays profit up as bad debt costs fall
BANKING giant Barclays reported a better-than-expected increase in profits as the group continued to run down its exposure to heavily indebted eurozone countries.
Barclays reported pre-tax profits of £2.4bn in the three months to September 30, compared with £989m the previous quarter. Pre-tax profits for the first nine months of the year are 18 per cent higher than the previous year at £5.02bn.
Barclays said the group’s sovereign exposure to Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Greece reduced in the third quarter by 31 per cent to £8bn.
Elsewhere, its investment banking division, Barclays Capital, continued to feel the impact of increased global uncertainty with flat revenues in the nine-month period.