Investors appeared pleased at the broad message from the bank's results and shares rose by more than 5 per cent in late-afternoon trade, outperforming the wider UK equity market.

The private bank and wealth management arm of UK-listed Barclays yesterday reported that pre-tax profit fell 22 per cent year-on-year to £98 million in the three months to end-September this year.

Operating costs fell 4 per cent to £222 million, while total income fell by 3 per cent, to £326 million. Net interest income declined by 14 per cent in Q3 2024 on a year before; net fee, commission and other income, however, rose by 16 per cent, Barclays said in a statement. 

Structural changes dented the pre-tax profit result. For the nine months to end-September, total operating expenses increased 22 per cent cent, reflecting the transfer of wealth management and investment from Barclays UK and higher ongoing spending, including hiring to support business growth, Barclays said.

Invested assets rose to £122.4 billion at the end of September, up from £105.4 billion a year earlier. The cost/income ratio rose to 68 per cent from 63 per cent in the third quarter of 2023.

For the whole of Barclays, its pre-tax profit for Q3 2024 rose 18 per cent year-on-year to £1.82 billion for the quarter. Shares in the bank outperformed the wider market for blue-chip stocks, up 5.3 per cent as of 15:30 UK time; the FTSE 100 Index of large-cap stocks was up by only 0.3 per cent. 

At the end of September, Barclays had a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio – its buffer capital – of 13.8 per cent, unchanged from the end of December last year.

“Whilst there is more work to do, the group is on track to achieve its target of greater than 12 per cent return on tangible equity in 2026,” C S Venkatakrishnan, Barclays Group CEO, said. 

The bank said it is targeting a group cost/income ratio of about 63 per cent, which includes about £1 billion of gross efficiency savings this year. 

Looking out into 2026, Barclays said it plans to return at least £10 billion of capital to shareholders between 2024 and 2026, through dividends and share buybacks; it continues to prefer using buybacks to achieve this aim.