Barclays sees sevenfold rise in profits in 2nd quarter amid strong investment

That resulted in Barclays reporting a 26% fall in its first quarter statutory profits to £1.34bn. By comparison, Deutsche Bank AG has increased 20 percent in that period, while UBS Group AG is up 25 percent.

Barclays said it had also added £750m to its provisions for the payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal, taking its total bill to date to £6bn.

The figure was revealed as John McFarlane, the chairman who is standing in as chief executive following the ousting of Antony Jenkins earlier this month, pledged to accelerate the disposal of risky businesses, cut costs at the scandal-hit bank and change the dividend policy. “There is more that can be done to deliver better returns for shareholders, faster, and that work has begun under three Group priorities which I have established since becoming Executive Chairman earlier this month”, he said.

Mr McFarlane said: “We continue to seek to put conduct issues behind us”.

The bank plans to dispose of more non-core operations.

In April, Barclays set aside a further £800m, largely to cover potential further legal action and penalties for alleged foreign exchange manipulation. “A sensibly planned faster run-down of Barclays non-core will be implemented”.

Elsewhere, pre-tax profit at the personal and corporate banking division rose 4 per cent to £1.53 billion.

Charges for loans that have gone bad fell by 23%, attributed to the improving UK economy and particularly lower defaults of large corporate clients.

‘Shorter term, the revolving door within the top management team is something of a concern and will bring some uncertainty.’.