Report: Barclays suffers share price and profit drop

The high street lender saw litigation charges of £1.59bn for the 12 months to 31 December 2022 (as opposed to £397mn in 2021) which took pre-tax profits for the year to £7.01bn, down 14% from £8.19bn in 2021 and below the city consensus of £7.2bn.

The announcement was met with a 9% reduction in the value of their share price. 

Barclays earnings have been poleaxed by rising costs, a lower level of deal fees and multi-million-dollar fines related to an administration error in the United States. 

However, net income totalled £24.96bn, up 14% from £21.94bn a year ago.

The bank, which is FTSE 100-listed, reported momentum across all business areas, benefiting from favourable movements in the forex market, notably the stronger dollar against the pound following post mini-budget turmoil.

Chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan commented: “"Barclays performed strongly in 2022. Each business delivered income growth, with group income up 14%.

“We achieved our RoTE target of over 10%, maintained a strong common equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio of 13.9%, and returned capital to shareholders. We are cautious about global economic conditions but continue to see growth opportunities across our businesses through 2023."