Barclays' (BARC) plan to simplify itself - by ditching non-core assets and downsizing the investment bank - appears to be on track. Indeed, adjusted pre-tax profit at the third-quarter stage beat analysts' consensus estimates by over 30 per cent - helped by a reduced bad debt charge - and operating expenses fell 7 per cent. A Basel III common equity tier one ratio of 10.2 per cent leaves the bank well capitalised, too.
Misconduct issues continue to plague the lender, however. Barclays set aside a £500m provision related to the ongoing investigation into foreign exchange market rigging and hiked its provision for PPI mis-selling by another £170m. With deleveraging underway at the investment bank, performance also suffered there: pre-tax profit at the division slumped 38 per cent in the nine months to end-September.
