Under-fire Barclays in red

THe boss of Barclays hit back at critics yesterday – insisting his bank can thrive despite a toxic mix of court cases and investigations.

Jes Staley dismissed fears that a fraud probe over a 2008 fundraising could see the bank stripped of its licence.

The chief executive, who is also being probed over his efforts to unmask a whistleblower, insisted the bank had turned a corner and is heading for growth.

He said: ‘We’re done restructuring, and we have the capital we need to take this bank forward and begin to look positively towards the future.’ It came as Barclays revealed a loss of £1.9bn, largely because of a £900m bill due to changes to the US tax system and £2.5bn costs from pulling out of Africa.

There were also £ 1.2bn of charges related to past behaviour, including a £700m compensation bill for selling useless payment protection insurance.

Meanwhile, £240m was set aside for payments relating to foreign exchange matters – thought to relate to historic claims of currency-rigging from around the world.

The bank is also facing a new investigation by the City watchdog into whether it mistreated customers who were behind with repayments on their debts.

Barclays is also poised to find out the cost of a US fine for selling toxic mortgages during the financial crisis, likely to be more than £1bn.

But the largest challenge is a prosecution over a £2.3bn fundraising from Qatar. Staley, 61, said: ‘What the market said is they don’t believe anyone would find cause, with this investigation, to touch those licences.’

Barclays took a £127m hit from the collapse of Carillion.