Barclays said it earned £1.45 billion, equivalent to $2 billion, in the three months to the end of September.
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Barclays
BCS 0.27%
PLC said its net profit rose in the third quarter, driven by a continued strong performance at its investment bank.
The London-based lender on Thursday said it earned £1.45 billion, equivalent to $2 billion, in the three months to the end of September, up from £611 million in the same period last year. Analysts expected the bank to report a £1.06 billion profit for the quarter.
Barclays Chief Executive
Jes Staley
has reinvigorated the lender’s trans-Atlantic investment banking unit and fended off activist investor
Edward Bramson,
who wanted Mr. Staley to scale it back and focus on U.K. retail banking. Mr. Bramson’s Sherborne Investors sold its 6% stake in Barclays earlier this year.
Profit at Barclays’ corporate and investment bank rose 85% to £1.16 billion during the third quarter. Profit at the bank’s U.K. unit almost tripled to £317 million.
European bank shares have mostly rebounded in 2021 after plummeting last year as the coronavirus pandemic struck, forcing lenders to set aside billions of dollars in provisions for bad loans. Some of those provisions have been released this year. The biggest U.S. banks, which trade at higher book values than their European rivals, all reported double-digit profit gains in the third quarter.
Barclays shares have risen 35% this year, outpacing the 11.8% rise in the U.K.’s benchmark FTSE 100 index.
Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com
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