Barclays has announced a dent in half-year profits following a major US settlement and miss-selling provisions.

Profit for the lender fell by 29 percent from £2.3 billion to £1.7 billion for the six months to 30 June.

The lender paid a £400 million PPI fine and a settlement of £1.4 billion with US authorities over its sale of mortgage-backed securities.

“It was the first quarter for some time with no significant litigation or conduct charges, restructuring costs or other exceptional expenses which hit our profitability,” said the chief executive, Jes Staley.

“In effect then, it is the first clear sight of the statutory performance of the business which we have re-engineered over the past two-and-a-half years – Barclays’ transatlantic consumer and wholesale bank – and it is a positive sight.”

Staley said that the bank’s performance showed its “true potential and value”.

“The numbers we have posted strengthen our confidence that Barclays can deliver attractive and sustainable profits, and in our ability to return a greater proportion of those profits to shareholders over time.”

Pre-tax profits for the second quarter were a total of £1.9 billion. This was up from £659 million during the same period in 2017.

Shares in Barclays (LON: BARC) closed down 2.7 percent at 186.5 pence.