Barclays annual profit falls as trading blunder, deal fees disappoint

Barclays annual profit falls as trading blunder, deal fees disappoint

By Lawrence White and Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays reported a 14% fall in annual profits, as costs from an administrative blunder that saw it oversell securities in the United States compounded a mixed performance by its investment banking division.

The British lender reported a pretax profit for 2022 of 7 billion pounds ($8.5 billion), down from 8.2 billion pounds the year before and just below the 7.2 billion pounds average analyst forecast, as compiled by the bank.

Returns on equity booked by the international unit which houses Barclays transatlantic investment bank fell to 10.2% from 14.4% a year earlier, as fees from advising on deals particularly in debt and equity capital markets, plunged by almost two-fifths year on year.

Profits before tax in that division also tumbled, by 23% to around 5 billion pounds.

The bank paid an annual dividend of 7.25 pence per share, in line with forecasts, and also announced a fresh share buyback of 500 million pounds to bring the total for 2022 to 1 billion pounds.

Barclays posted litigation and conduct charges for the year of 1.6 billion pounds, including fines and restitution to customers from overstepping agreed limits on sales of investment products in the United States.

($1 = 0.8239 pounds)

(Reporting By Lawrence White and Iain Withers, editing by Sinead Cruise)