BARCLAYS gave warning this week of further sizeable job cuts despite revealing a better than expected performance and a sharp cut in its exposure to eurozone debts.
Bob Diamond, the bank’s chief executive, said that about 3,500 staff had been made redundant as he announced a 5 per cent rise in third-quarter figures and 19 per cent in the nine months figure.
Diamond, the former head of Barclays’ investment bank BarCap, would not specify future job cuts but he added: “The kinds of trends you have seen this year this year, you should expect them to continue.”
At the six‑month stage, the bank had said about half the redundancies were in BarCap and it is believed the same applies to the latest figures due to tough financial markets.
Barclays made a pre‑tax profit of just over £5 billion for the nine months to September, up from £4.3bn. Underlying group Q3 profits rose 5 per cent to £1.34bn against £1.27bn last time. But profits at the investment bank halved to £388m. Income at BarCap, which provides the bulk of the group’s profit, fell 22 per cent to £2.25bn from the second quarter as trading conditions in financial markets worsened over the summer with the gathering eurozone banking and sovereign debt crisis.
Revenue in BarCap’s fixed income, currencies and commodities fell 16 per cent from the second quarter. Equities income slumped 40 per cent, and advisory income was down by a quarter.
Diamond said the overall performance by Barclays was “reassuring in a period of considerable challenge and uncertainty”. The high street arm more than doubled profits to £494 million on a one‑fifth rise in revenues. Barclaycard’s profits lifted 54 per cent to £378m. Meanwhile, bad debt charges fell a third to £2.8bn.
Barclays revealed it cut its exposure to sovereign debt in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy by 31 per cent to £8bn in the last quarter, but warned that liquidity in wholesale financial markets remained tight.
Extract taken from:
http://tiny.cc/xgm4d
No comments:
Post a Comment