Shares in Barclays fell 5% on Tuesday despite the UK bank delivering a better than expected 17% jump in half-year profits driven by higher income in its global markets division and investment banking fees.<\/p>\n
Pre-tax profit for the six months to June 30 came in at \u00a36bn, beating forecasts of \u00a35.94bn, while group income increased 11% to \u00a316.5bn boosted by higher structural hedge income and a one-off \u00a3225m gain from the sale of the American Airlines credit card portfolio. Barclays also announced a \u00a31bn share buyback.<\/p>\n
The bank said it remains on track to meet its 2026 and 2028 financial targets, upgrading its 2026 income goal to around \u00a331.5bn. Net interest income excluding the investment bank and head office is now expected to exceed \u00a313.7bn, reflecting continued balance\u2011sheet growth and hedge benefits.<\/p>\n
Barclays announced \u00a32.3bn of capital distributions for the first half, up 61% on last year. That includes a \u00a31bn share buyback for Q2 and a 5.9p interim dividend, almost double the prior year\u2019s payout. Management reiterated its plan to return at least \u00a310bn to shareholders between 2024 and 2026, with a preference for buybacks.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s CET1 ratio held at 14.3%, at the top of its 13\u201314% target range. After accounting for the new \u00a31bn buyback, the ratio would be 14.0%, which Barclays said still provides comfortable headroom for regulatory changes and planned balance\u2011sheet growth.<\/p>\n
Barclays UK delivered an 8% rise in income and a 20.1% RoTE, supported by loan growth and higher hedge income. Mortgage balances increased to \u00a3176.7bn, though margin compression and higher arrears nudged credit\u2011impairment charges up to \u00a3338m.<\/p>\n
The UK Corporate Bank posted 30% profit growth, with income up 8% and RoTE rising to 20.6%. Higher average deposit and lending balances supported net interest income, while credit impairments remained low.<\/p>\n
Private Bank and Wealth Management saw income rise 2% but profit fall 21% as investment spending pushed the cost:income ratio to 73%. Client assets increased to \u00a3230bn, helped by market movements and deposit inflows.<\/p>\n
The Investment Bank delivered \u00a37.99bn of income, up 11%, with strong performances in equities, advisory and ECM. Profit before tax rose to \u00a33.34bn, though impairments increased due to a \u00a3228m single\u2011name charge. RoTE improved to 15.5%.<\/p>\n
The US Consumer Bank benefited from the \u00a3225m gain on the AA portfolio sale and the Best Egg acquisition, lifting income 26% and RoTE to 24.2%. Underlying credit trends remained stable, with arrears broadly unchanged.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Barclays expects to maintain a CET1 ratio within 13\u201314%, deliver a cost:income ratio in the high\u201150s for 2026, and keep loan\u2011loss rates around the top of its 50\u201360bps through\u2011the\u2011cycle range. Management said it remains \u201cconfident\u201d in meeting all financial and distribution targets for both 2026 and 2028.<\/p>\n
Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shares in Barclays fell 5% on Tuesday despite the UK bank delivering a better than expected 17% jump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21264],"tags":[3343,39487,23562,23563,23565,23564,23583,28885,24152,35174,29675,23671,3702],"class_list":["post-92641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barclays","tag-barclays","tag-beat","tag-categoryall","tag-categorycompany-news","tag-categoryheadline-news","tag-categorynews-and-announcements","tag-categorysectorial-finance","tag-despite","tag-fall","tag-mostread_all","tag-mostread_company_news","tag-profits","tag-shares"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117002003047460189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}