Barclays to record £7 billion profit

Barclays has said it is on track to report an annual pretax profit of about £7 billion, up more than 30 per cent on last year…

Barclays has said it is on track to report an annual pretax profit of about £7 billion, up more than 30 per cent on last year.

Its Barclays Capital investment bank arm showed higher income and growth in the third quarter than a year ago, but bad debts at its Barclaycard credit card unit continued to rise, which contributed to a fall in Barclays shares of as much as 2 per cent.

There were signs of recovery in the core UK business, which has underperformed in recent years.

Barclays, Britain's third-biggest bank, said it won an increased share of net mortgage and savings business in the third quarter, retail banking had sustained the 6 per cent rise in income seen in the first six months of the year, and the UK business maintained a 3 percentage point improvement in its cost/income ratio.

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The bank said the rate of growth in Barclaycard's bad debts continued the trend of the first half, when they rose 37 per cent.