Barclays posts record annual profit

Reuters Videos
2 年前

STORY: 2021 turned out to be a bumper year for Barclays as it reported a record annual profit of just over $11.4 billion.

Wednesday's (February 23) announcement was above analyst expectations and almost tripled results from a year before.

The British lender's investment bank was a key winner as it made its strongest ever profit of $7.9 billion.

That figure was driven by charging higher fees for advising on deals like mergers and fundraising.

Barclays was also helped by a plunge in bad loan charges.

The bank said it would pay out $3.4 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.

The results follow a run of strong numbers for British lenders.

Rival HSBC said it more than doubled annual profits on Tuesday (February 22).

Investors liked what they heard as Barclays shares rose as much as 4% in early trade.

Wednesday's update was also the first update since the shock exit of Jes Staley as CEO in November.

He left after a fall-out with British regulators over how he explained his ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.