|
 Barclays said it had now set aside 2.05 billion pounds ($3.2
billion) to cover any settlement, but offered only limited clues on
how soon a deal might come.
U.S. and British authorities are investigating the allegations.
Barclays pulled out of a settlement between some authorities and six
rival banks in November because it had not reached a deal with New
York's regulator.
"That (extra provision) reflects the further discussions we've been
having with a number of regulators and agencies around the world
across multiple jurisdictions," Finance Director Tushar Morzaria
told reporters.
Barclays wanted to settle the allegations with as many agencies as
possible in one go and Morzaria said the bank did not regret pulling
out of the earlier settlement.
New York's banking regulator has said it could reach a deal with
Barclays next month if it excluded a probe of the possible rigging
of rates through computer programs. It could take several more
months if that trading is included.
Barclays could settle next month with a host of regulators, and
leave any settlement with New York's regulator on computer trading
until a later date.
Barclays also set aside another 150 million pounds for compensating
customer mis-sold insurance products in Britain, which has now cost
Barclays 5.4 billion pounds and all British banks more than 26
billion.
Britain's four biggest banks have paid out 42 billion pounds in
charges related to misconduct in the past five years, and face
paying out another 19 billion pounds over the next two years,
Standard & Poor's said this week.
PROVISION DRAGS
Under Chief Executive Antony Jenkins, Barclays has abandoned its
ambition of being a Wall Street powerhouse, shrinking its investment
bank in favor of a return to its retail roots. He is cutting 19,000
jobs and shedding unwanted assets and businesses to cut costs and
improve returns and its capital strength.
However, the cost of settling past misconduct issues continues to
dog Barclays' attempt to turn itself around.
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The bank reported a statutory pretax profit of 1.3 billion pounds,
down 26 percent from a year ago.
Its underlying pretax profit, stripping out the provision and other
one-off items, was 1.8 billion pounds, up 9 percent from a year ago
and just above the average forecast from analysts polled by the
company.
Barclays shares dipped 0.6 percent by 1010 GMT (6.10 a.m. ET), as
analysts said the results showed progress being made by the bank,
but the forex provision was higher than expected.
"The increased FX provision, unaccompanied by further news-flow, is
rather troubling," said Mike Trippitt, analyst at Numis Securities.
Return on equity, a key measure of profitability, was 10.9 percent
for the core business, as earnings from personal and corporate
banking rose 14 percent and underlying costs fell 7 percent.
The investment bank's profits rose 37 percent on the year to 675
million pounds, as revenues rose 2 percent to 2.2 billion pounds, in
line with analysts' expectations and echoing a strong performance by
its U.S. rivals.
"The investment bank had a good Q1, representing a performance which
is more indicative of the potential of the franchise following the
repositioning undertaken last year," Jenkins said.
(Editing by Keith Weir)
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