Barclays suffers 33% profits slump

Updated 10.26 Thu Aug 07 2008

Keywords: credit crunch, barclays

Barclays has suffered a 33 per cent first-half profits slump thanks to £2.8 billion of credit crunch write-downs.

The group posted a pre-tax figure of £2.75 billion for the six months to June 30 after racking up another £1.1 billion of credit crunch impairments on top of the £1.7 billion reported during the first three months.

Chief executive John Varley said the group had experienced "significant" write-downs and that profits decline was "acutely disappointing"

Chief executive John Varley said the group had experienced "significant" write-downs and that profits decline was "acutely disappointing".

The bank's £2.8 billion of credit crunch write downs during the first half have been offset in the accounts with revaluation gains of £852 million, to give a net impact of around £2 billion. The net figure at the end of the first quarter was £1 billion.

Mr Varley said the group had been "conservative" in the level of write downs applied.

He said: "We are completely confident about the rigour we have applied to the mark downs."