Barclays’ Staley: Britain ‘open for business’ after Brexit vote

BRITAIN and Barclays are very much open for business after the Brexit vote, Jes Staley, the bank’s American chief executive, declared today.

“The Bank of England, post-Brexit, said it wanted the financial community in the UK to support the economy,” said St a l e y. “B a rc l ays critic ally wants to play its part in that. I want Barclays to be a centre of civility and safety, and we intend Barclays to be open for business.”

He said that since the vote, the bank had approved £8 billion of mortgages — mo re than the s a me t i me last year — and led Melrose’s £2.8 billion takeover of a US air-conditioning business. It had also struck the first postreferendum bond issue and led the first flotation in European markets.

Staley added that he waited to see what the Bank of England would do with interest rates and quantitative easing next month: “A 25-basis-point cut won’t have much effect on us but a cut to zero would. But I don’t see any need for us to make a change in direction. There has been a pause by retail and corporate customers since the referendum but the supply of credit is here. ”

Barclays’ first-half profits fell 21% to £2.06 billion as it took a £372 million writedown on its French business, which it has agreed to sell to privateequity firm AnaCap, and another £400 million charge for PPI mis- selling. Losses from non-core businesses also increased after Staley speeded up their sale or closure.

Barclays had the strongest performance of any European investment bank in the first half, according to Staley, and is likely to see a boost from the weaker pound in the second half because most of its business is done in dollars.

The extra PPI charge was unexpected,