Barclays Quarterly Profits Rise 29%

Barclays said first-quarter profit rose 29% on the back of strong investment banking results.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

LONDON (

TheStreet

) --

Barclays

(BCS) - Get Report

, the U.K. bank, said first-quarter profit rose 29% on the back of strong investment banking results.

Barclays said net profit in the quarter was 1.07 billion pounds ($1.64 billion), up from 826 million pounds a year earlier.

Barclays said its corporate and investment banking, and wealth management division reported pretax profit of 1.47 billion pounds, up from 1 billion pounds last year. Pretax profit at Barclays Capital rose 62%.

The bank said impairments in the quarter were down 35%.

Diversification of our business and risk, and good underlying performance, have combined to produce this result," said CEO John Varley, in a statement Friday. "The improvement that we have seen in impairment reflects the signs of economic recovery now evident in many of the markets in which we operate."

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York.

Follow TheStreet.com on

Twitter

and become a fan on

Facebook.

Loading ...