Barclays sees profits rise

The bank said it intends to accelerate the run down of assets and cost cutting as its new chairman sought to stamp his mark on the British bank three weeks after firing the chief executive.

Chairman John McFarlane, who arrived at Barclays in April with a reputation for taking bold action, said he will cut its costs as a percentage of income to “mid 50s” percent and cut non-core assets to £20bn by 2017.

Barclays took an additional provision of £850m in the second quarter for UK customer compensation, mainly for mis-sold insurance products. It reported an adjusted pretax profit of £1.85bn pounds for the second quarter, up 12 per cent from a year ago and ahead of the average analyst forecast of £1.75bn.

Mr McFarlane said: “The results reported today represent continued good progress for the business.

“Group profits are up on both an adjusted and statutory basis, and our core franchises have performed well. Non-Core rundown continues, costs remain under control, and we continue to seek to put conduct issues behind us.”