Barclays revealed pre-tax profits for the first six months of this year came in at £2.6bn, down 33% from the same period last year, but beating analysts’ forecasts of £2.4bn.
Barclays Capital’s half-year profit fell 9% on the year and income at the investment banking arm was down 11% to £6.26bn pounds, led by a fall in fixed income revenue.
The bank was hit with a £1bn charge for settling claims of mis-selling of PPI.
Chief executive Bob Diamond said: “I am pleased with the progress made across Barclays in the first half. We have performed well on our journey to a targeted 13% return on equity by 2013.
“Our capital, liquidity and funding position is rock solid. We look forward to the finalisation of new banking regulations over the coming months. This will help us balance requirements to hold more capital and liquidity on the one hand, with the desire of shareholders for us to distribute higher dividends and with business demand for us to help support economic growth, on the other.
“In the meantime we are meeting our Project Merlin commitments and have extended £20bn of new lending to businesses in the UK in the first half. We are on track to lend at least £40bn for the year.”
Barclays is the second of the big UK banks to report results this week. On Monday, HSBC reported pre-tax profits for the first six months of the year of £7bn, up 3% from the previous year.
