Barclays: beats forecasts on investment banking strength

(CercleFinance.com) - Barclays has beaten forecasts with a 19% drop innine-month profit, as a strong rebound in revenue from its corporate and investment banking arm was propelled by wider spreads and market share gains.


This morning the British bank reported a pre-tax profit of 2 billion pounds for the first nine months of 2020, down from 2.4 billion pounds a year ago.

In th third quarter, Barclays made a pretax profit of 1.1 billion pounds, compared with a 246 million profit the year before, above the consensus of 465 million pounds supplied by the company.

Income at its corporate and investment banking division - the business that provides the bulk of the bank's profit - rose to 2.9 billion pounds over the period, up 11% year-on-year driven by strong income from market activities, it said.

In its statement, Barclays said its outlook remains "uncertain," due to future developments in the COVID-19 pandemic and the outcome of Brexit negotiations.

However, its shares were shining after all this - up 6.2% in Friday morning trading.

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