Barclays posts 19% slide in annual net profit after costly U.S. trading blunder

cnbc.com:

LONDON — Barclays on Wednesday reported a full-year net profit of £5.023 billion ($6.07 billion) for 2022, beating consensus expectations of £4.95 billion but suffering a 19% fall from the previous year's restated £6.2 billion in part due to a costly trading blunder in the U.S.

Fourth-quarter attributable profit was £1.04 billion, above analyst projections of £833.29 million but down 4% from the £1.08 billion posted in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Here are the other financial highlights:

The British lender took a substantial hit from an over-issuance of securities in the U.S., which resulted in litigation and conduct charges totaling £1.6 billion over the course of 2022.

The British bank announced early last year that it had sold $15.2 billion more in U.S. investment products — known as structured notes — than it was permitted to.

Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan said the group performed «strongly» in 2022.

«Each business delivered income growth, with Group income up 14%. We achieved our RoTE target of over 10%, maintained a strong Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio of 13.9%, and returned capital to shareholders,» he said.

«We are cautious about global economic conditions, but continue to see growth opportunities across our businesses through 2023.»

The international unit, which includes Barclays' investment bank, saw return on equity fall to 10.2% for the full year from 14.4% in 2021, and to 6.4% in the fourth quarter from 9.9% in the same quarter of the previous year. Profits also tumbled in the corporate and investment banking division.