Road to nowhere

UBS and Barclays face long road to nowhere

Banking is a low-growth industry with little going for it — as second-quarter earnings from UBS and Barclays show. The two banks beat analyst forecasts for net profit, excluding a charge Barclays took for selling its French retail business. Yet each suffered significant absolute drops from a year ago and UBS has ditched short-term guidance on profitability. The outlook makes it hard to see where an improvement in the pair’s valuation could come from.

Consider Barclays, whose home UK market has voted to quit the European Union. The three months to June contained just five days after the referendum