Barclays Bank building
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Barclays on Friday reported a net profit of £611 million ($797.7 million) for the third quarter, as the British lender attempts to plot a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
The improvement, which more than doubles analyst expectations of £273.5 million, comes in part due to a sharp reduction in coronavirus-related impairment charges.
In the first half of 2020, the British lender posted a net income of £695 million after adding another £1.6 billion of loan loss provisions in the second quarter.
This time around, cash set aside to accommodate bad loans amounted to just £608 million.
Other highlights:
- Common equity tier one capital (CET1) ratio was 14.6%, up from 14.2% at the end of the first half.
- Group income hit £5.2 billion.
The bank reported a net loss of £292 million for the same period in 2019 after being hit by $1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) worth of insurance claims.
Major lenders have generally surprised to the upside so far this earnings season, with UBS easily surpassing expectations earlier this week to post a net income to $2.1 billion.
Barclays shares are down more than 42% since the turn of the year.
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