Barclays: first-quarter profit hit by impairment charge
(CercleFinance.com) - Barclays has reported a 900 million pound pre-tax profit for the first quarter, as it suffered from the macroeconomic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The British lender said on Wednesday that it has booked a 2.1 billion pound credit impairment charge reflecting its initial estimates of the impact that the outbreak will have.
This number primarily reflects wholesale loan charges in the quarter and the expected deterioration in macroeconomic variables, including expected peak unemployment levels for the UK and the US, it said.
Barclays posted first-quarter pre-tax profit of 3 billion pounds, before the impact of the credit impairment charges was included.
In its quarterly statement, the bank said it had a "strong" income performance at its corporate and investment bank (CIB) division, where its markets unit reported a record quarter due to extreme volatility.
The report was warmly welcomed by investors, who lifted the stock by over 5.5% in early morning trading on the London Stock Exchange.
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