Profits were flat on last year’s £1.96bn owing to a credit impairment charge of £129m. The bank said this was due to a worsening economic outlook, citing customer vulnerability to high inflation and rising interest rates as two main factors.
During the quarter, Barclays UK’s pre-tax profit came to £762m, a 69 per cent jump on £451m last year.
The UK business’ total income saw a nine per cent uplift to £5.3bn for the year to date, while its net interest income rose 10 per cent to £4.3bn. For Q3, these figures were £1.9bn and £1.5bn respectively.
Its personal banking income rose 14 per cent to £3.3bn which it said was bolstered by rising rates and strong mortgage originations in 2021. However, this was offset by “mortgage margin compression”.
The bank’s net interest margin of 2.78 per cent was 25 basis points higher than the same period a year ago.
Loans and advances to customers went up by two per cent to £205.1bn, which it said was driven by £3bn in mortgage growth. This was slightly impacted by a £7.3bn decline in business banking balances due to the repayment of government scheme lending. Net loans and advances to customers totalled £161.2bn for the period.
The Barclays group saw pre-tax profits of £2bn in Q3 and for the year so far, posted a profit of £5.7bn.
Barclays: ‘Uncertain economic environment’
C.S. Venkatakrishnan, group chief executive at Barclays, said: “We delivered another quarter of strong returns, and achieved income growth in each of our three businesses, with a 17 per cent increase in group income to £6.4bn.
“We are ready to provide support for customers and clients facing an uncertain economic environment and higher cost pressures. Whether helping retail customers to manage their finances or corporate clients navigate markets volatility, we will continue to be focused on meeting their needs.”
