Barclays net profit rises

LONDON, Oct 29, (AFP): British lender Barclays, fresh from appointing new chief executive James Staley, on Thursday logged rising third-quarter net profit boosted by its investment banking division.

Profit after taxation rose 10 percent to £417 million (578 million euros, $638 million) in the three months through September compared with a year earlier, Barclays said in a results statement one day after appointing its new boss.

Staley has vowed to “preserve and enhance” trust in the lender, whose reputation has been badly damaged by a series of scandals including foreign exchange and Libor interest rate rigging.

Barclays is meanwhile in the middle of a long-term plan to axe 19,000 jobs in a major restructuring.

“Today’s results show another quarter of progress in our core businesses alongside the early effects of some of the changes that we are making,” said chairman John McFarlane in Thursday’s statement.

However, pre-tax profit including restructuring costs fell 10 percent to £1.43 billion in the third quarter. That missed the £1.65-billion average estimate of analysts polled by Barclays.

The lender was hit by a £290 million-compensation charge to customers related to foreign exchange and £270 million to settle residential mortgagebacked securities claims in the United States.

The appointment of 58-year-old American investment banker Staley was meanwhile seen as an attempt by the bank to focus anew on its investment arm.