Barclays, the UK’s second largest lender by assets, has announced an adjusted pre-tax profit of £5.2bn ($8.5bn) and a "statutory" pre-tax profit – after the cost of provisions and other charges is taken into account – of £2.9bn, down 86% year on year.
The full results announcement comes after a prediction in the Financial Times on 10 February which Barclays found to be "too accurate" and made decided to make a pre-announcement of its headline profit figures to "provide clarity".
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In the UK the banks retail division remained almost flat with 2% fall in profit to £1.2bn.
Highlights in 2013 included:
– Barclaycard has reported an income up 10% to £4.7bn reflecting net lending growth, with international income up 17% and UK income up 6%;
– Barclays retail division has reported an increase in profits in Africa, up 25% to £404m, and
– The bank continues to grow its digital channel with 5.3m digitally active customers in Q4 2013, up 18% compared with Q4 2012.
Less positive metrics included:
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By GlobalData– The bank continues to incur costs from its retail banking withdrawal in Europe, recording a loss of £1bn.
– Barclays cost income ratio for its UK retail and business banking division inched up by one percentage point.
– Net interest margin at with in the UK retail and business banking arm fell from 135bps in 2012 to 129bps.
The banks results have been overshadowed by an announcement by CEO Anthony Jenkins that the bank will cut 12,000 jobs in 2014, predominantly in its investment banking division.
Controversially the bank has increase the bonus pool by 10% to £2.4bn despite the investment bank sliding into the red in the fourth quarter with a £329m loss, compared with profit of £760m the year before, dragging its attributable profits down 42% for the full-year.
Anthony Jenkins, group CEO said: "2013 has been a year of considerable change for Barclays. I am pleased with the progress we made in starting to rebuild trust, defining and implementing a common culture, repositioning the business for the future, and strengthening our balance sheet.
"A year on from launching our plan to transform Barclays into the Go-To bank for all our stakeholders, we are in a significantly better position and I feel confident about our prospects.
"Our UK Retail and Corporate Banking businesses delivered good results, alongside the continued strong growth of Barclaycard."
The chief executive, who took over from Bob Diamond 18 months ago, said 220 managing directors and 600 directors would be leaving the bank over the next six months to help bring down costs.
The bank would cut 10,000-12,000 jobs this year across its businesses globally, he added, of which 7,000 are expected to come from the UK. The bank currently employs 140,000 staff.
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