Barclays, Britain's second- biggest lender, reported full-year profit that missed analyst estimates as litigation and compensation charges complicate chief executive officer Antony Jenkins's overhaul of the lender. The bank is not scheduledto publish its results until tomorrow, but released headline figures today.
Adjusted pretax profit for 2013 was £5.2 billion ($8.5 billion), the bank said in a statement today, 26 per cent down from £7.05 billion in 2012 and missing estimates. The stock rose 1.7 per cent at 276.30 pence as of 10:59 a.m. in London trading today, for a market value of about £44.5 billion. The shares are up about 1.6 per cent this year.
Jenkins is cutting jobs, including hundreds of positions at the investment banking operation, to remove £1.7 billion of costs by 2015. The company said last month it would take a £330 million charge relating to regulatory penalties and lawsuits in the fourth quarter. The lender said yesterday it’s in talks with regulators about a possible criminal leak of client account information.
As many as 27,000 customer files containing personal and financial information were taken, the Mail on Sunday reported yesterday, citing an unidentified whistle-blower. It's unclear how the files were stolen, the newspaper said, adding data was sold to brokers to be used for "investment scams."
Statutory pretax profit rose to £2.9 billion, up from £246 million in the year-earlier period.
Bloomberg
