Barclays bank (LON:BARC) has reported its half-yearly results, led by a 25% rise in pre-tax profits to £3.14bn.
Pre-tax profit was 1.85 billion pounds for the second quarter, up 12 percent from a year ago and ahead of the average analyst forecast of 1.75 billion pounds.
However, the bank have set aside another 850 million pounds to compensate UK customers for mis-sold PPI protection. This will bring the total compensation given up to £6m.
This announcement comes less than a month after the bank’s new chairman John McFarlane sacked Chief Exectutive Antony Jenkins because his turnaround plan for the bank was not working fast enough.
“We need to accelerate the execution of the strategy,” McFarlane said on Wednesday, pinpointing a need to speed up the growth in earnings, return on equity and capital generation.
McFarlane said he plans to cut costs as a percentage of income to “mid 50s” percent, from 68 percent in the first-half of the year. He also plans to cut Barclays’ non-core profits from £57 billion to £45 billion by the end of 2016.
