Barclays profit drops from £1.5bn to £913m as virus impacts bank

Profit at Barclays fell by more than 42 per cent in the first three months of the year, as the bank took a major hit from the coronavirus crisis, it revealed on Wednesday.
Barclays Bank.Barclays Bank.
Barclays Bank.

Pre-tax profit dropped from around £1.5bn to £913m, bosses said.

It came as the company took a massive £2.1bn impairment charge, most of it related to the impact of Covid-19.

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The pre-tax profit was significantly below forecasts of £1.48bn.

Barclays boss Jes Staley said the bank had "a good quarter" until Covid-19 hit its business.

"We have taken a £2.1bn credit impairment charge, which reflects our initial estimates of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic," he said.

Without this charge, pre-tax profit would have reached £3bn, he added.

It was at home where Barclays was the worst hit.

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Pre-tax profit dropped 66 per cent to £220m in the UK, compared with a 28 per cent drop to £822m internationally.

Governments around the world have been scrambling to shore up businesses, with many leaning on the banks to step in to give emergency loans.

In the UK, small businesses can apply to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) through their usual lenders.

Mr Staley said: "We welcome the Government and Bank of England's business support programmes and have introduced additional measures to back UK companies ourselves."

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He added that Barclays has lent £737m as part of the CBILS. It has also approved more than 238,000 mortgage and loan payment holidays, and six million customers are not paying charges on personal or business overdrafts.

"We expect that all of these measures will help to limit the economic and social impact of the pandemic," the chief executive said.

But the roll-out has not been without problems.

Many business owners have complained about long waiting times as they scramble to get enough money to stop them collapsing.

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