Barclays Profits Fall on Impairments

Updated from 2:59 a.m. EST

LONDON (TheStreet) -- U.K. bank Barclays(BCS Quote) said net profit for the nine months ended Sept. 30 fell 29% as impairment charges rose 65% from a year earlier.

Barclays, in a trading update, Tuesday reported earnings of 2.73 billion pounds ($4.54 billion), down from 3.825 billion pounds in the same nine months of 2008.

The bank, one of the few British banks not to resort to a multibillion government bailout, said impairment charges in the period were 6.21 billion pounds vs 3.76 billion pounds a year earlier. Barclays said it expects impairments for the full year to be at the lower end of a range of 9 billion pounds to 9.6 billion pounds.

Barclays reported a 32% rise in income at its investment banking and investment management arm over the nine months. Global retail and commercial banking income rose 11%.

"We have maintained strong income momentum in the third quarter, particularly in Barclays Capital and across the international activities of global retail and commercial banking, enabling us to achieve consistent profitability across the first three quarters of 2009," said CEO John Varley, in a statement.

Third-quarter earnings at Barclays fell to 1.075 billion pounds from 2.33 billion pounds a year earlier. Last year's third quarter included a gain of 1.5 billion pounds from the purchase of operations from Lehman Brothers.

Barclays shares were about 2% lower in London as of 4:25 a.m. EST on Tuesday.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

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