Barclays results don’t impress investors

Banking giant Barclays (LON:BARC) has announced that pre-tax profits excluding litigation and conduct for the first quarter of 2019 dropped to £1.5 billion. Profits grew in the UK, but sunk internationally due to difficult conditions for the corporate and investment banking arm.

Group CEO James E Staley said: “What you see in the first quarter is Barclays using this discretion around variable compensation to manage our costs and deliver expected profitability.

“A 9.6% RoTE, excluding litigation and conduct, in the first quarter of this year is a good step towards our objective of delivering a RoTE of greater than 9% in 2019 and greater than 10% in 2020.”

Barclays’ share price had fallen by 3.29% to 160.90p (as of 13:50 BST).