Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
British financial institution Barclays on Thursday posted an increase in full-year pre-tax revenue that got here in simply forward of analyst expectations, whereas additionally launching a £1 billion share buyback.
Pretax revenue rose by 24% to £8.108 billion in 2024, simply above analyst expectations of £8.081 billion, based on LSEG.
Since final yr, Barclays has been implementing a strategic overhaul to whittle down prices by £2 billion by 2026, carry shareholder returns and stabilize monetary returns, sharpening its deal with the worthwhile shopper and lending operations — and resulting in the absorption of the retail banking enterprise of British grocer Tesco’s.
But Barclays‘ historically robust banking unit may now stand to learn from extra open market share within the home area, as HSBC final month introduced it’s getting ready to exit its M&A and fairness capital markets companies in Europe, the U.Ok. and the U.S. amid a bigger restructure of its funding banking operations.
The financial institution has additionally been recovering from a sweeping three-day tech outage that disrupted funds and transactions on the finish of final month, which has since been resolved.
Extra broadly, lenders have been battling lethargy within the U.Ok. financial system and a pullback in IPO exercise within the London Inventory Trade. The Financial institution of England executed its first price reduce of the yr final week and signaled additional trims in 2025 amid a downgrade within the U.Ok.’s financial forecast — with financial easing usually consuming away at financial institution earnings, because it tightens the unfold between lenders’ return in loans and their payout on deposits. British and European banks are additionally struggling to maintain tempo with counterparts within the U.S., which may gain advantage from an extra aggressive edge if newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump takes a lighter method to native regulation.
In parallel, U.Ok. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves is prodding Britain’s Monetary Conduct Authority towards selling competitiveness in tandem with shopper safety, with markets eyeing the federal government’s Monetary Providers Development and Competitiveness Technique due out in spring.
This breaking information story is being up to date.