Barclays bank rebounds into quarterly net profit

Barclays said Friday that it rebounded into profit in the third quarter after a massive mis-selling charge a year earlier, but cautioned over the outlook due to coronavirus and Brexit.

Profit after taxation hit £611 million ($801 million, 677 million euros) in the three months to the end of September, Barclays said in a statement to AFP.

That contrasted with a net loss of £292 million in the third quarter of 2019, when it had taken a massive charge of £1.4 billion to compensate customers who had been mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) over a number of years.

Pre-tax profit soared to £1.1 billion from just £200 million a year earlier, while group income dipped six percent to £5.2 billion.

The lender also booked £608 million of impairment charges for the reporting period.

The British bank added that the “outlook remains uncertain and subject to change depending on the evolution and persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the outcome of Brexit negotiations”.

And the company warned that it was also mulling further cost-cutting.

“The group will be evaluating actions to reduce structural costs, which could result in additional charges, the timing and size of which remain to be determined,” it said.