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Barclays profits increase sharply | Barclays profits increase sharply |
(20 minutes later) | |
Barclays Bank has become the latest UK bank to post strong half-year profits, though this was offset slightly by settlements on UK overdraft fees. | |
Pre-tax profit at the bank rose 12% to £4.1bn, supported heavily by record earnings at its investment bank arm. | |
Profits at its UK retail banking business grew 9% to £651m. | Profits at its UK retail banking business grew 9% to £651m. |
Barclays said it had refunded £87m in settlement payments to customers who claimed they had been overcharged for overdraft fees. | Barclays said it had refunded £87m in settlement payments to customers who claimed they had been overcharged for overdraft fees. |
Other bank charge refund costs announced by UK banks this week have included £79m from HBOS, £39m from Lloyds TSB and £116m from HSBC. | |
Our ambition is to be one of the handful of universal banks leading the global financial services industry John Varley, Barclays chief executive See Barclays' share price | |
The costs come from the widespread practice of settling the cases out of court. | |
Now, though, nine banks and the Office of Fair Trading have agreed to submit a test case to the High Court to see whether the charges - imposed for breaching overdraft limits - are legal. | |
ABN bid | |
Barclays put part of its healthy profits increase down to the performance of its investment banking arm, which saw earnings rise a third to £1.66bn. | |
The bank also said its takeover bid for Dutch group ABN Amro was still on track, promising that should the deal go ahead it would "significantly accelerate" its growth ambitions. | |
The next stage in its bid would start on Monday 6 August, when - if regulatory approval was forthcoming - it would begin buying back shares worth £2.4bn. | |
That, it said, should help boost its share price, thus raising the value of its offer for ABN. | |
At present, its offer is slightly below that of a rival bid from a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland. | |
"Our ambition is to be one of the handful of universal banks leading the global financial services industry," said Barclays chief executive John Varley. |
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