Income rose at the private banking and wealth side although the profit figure slipped. Barclays has resumed publishing the results of its wealth management business after restructuring its business lines.

Barclays, which restructured its business lines last year to create a private bank and wealth management division, today said this part of its business made total first-quarter 2024 income of £312 million (£389.8 million), rising 20 per cent on a year ago. Pre-tax profit in this segment fell, however.

(For several years, the wealth part of the London-listed bank’s activities did not disclose financial figures.)

For Barclays as a whole, total income dipped 4 per cent year-on-year to £6.953 billion; total operating expenses fell 2 per cent to £4.175 billion. Pre-tax profit fell 12 per cent to £2.277 billion; after-tax profit fell 11 per cent to £1.812 billion, it said in a statement. The bank’s cost/income ratio widened on a year ago to 60 per cent from 57 per cent. Return on average tangible shareholders’ equity fell to 12.3 per cent from 15 per cent.

At the end of March, the bank’s Common Equity Tier 1 ratio – a standard yardstick of capital “shock absorber” – was 13.5 per cent, down from 13.6 per cent; its leverage ratio narrowed to 4.9 per cent. It had a liquidity coverage ratio of 163 per cent.

The lender said it plans to return at least £10 billion of capital to shareholders between 2024 and 2026 via dividends and share buybacks, with a continued preference for buybacks. The group is targeting operating expenses of about £17 billion and total income of around £30 billion. It intends to find total gross efficiency savings of around £2 billion by 2026.

Private bank and wealth
In other details, the firm said its private bank and wealth arm made a pre-tax profit of £95 million, down 15 per cent on a year earlier; net interest income was £175 million, down 3 per cent; net fee, commission and other income was £137 million, surging by 76 per cent.

This part of the bank saw growth in client balances of about £48 billion, mostly in invested assets, it said. 

Since the restructuring, and in addition to to the private bank and wealth management arm, the four other segments of Barclays are Barclays UK, Barclays US Consumer Bank; Barclays UK Corporate Bank; and Barclays Investment Bank.