There was a faint weariness to the scheduled trading statement from Barclays on Tuesday. After all, the bank had already updated us on the robustness of its BarCap investment banking operation and Barclays executives generally have not missed an opportunity to soothe ruffled market feathers. So the bank is saying it again:
The diversification of our profits in recent years, together with the investments we have made in businesses both inside and outside the UK, is serving us well in 2007. Our performance in the nine months to the end of September was supported by good underlying growth in Global Retail and Commercial Banking, and by resilience in Investment Banking and Investment Management in the face of turbulent market conditions in the second half.
Got that? “Good underlying growth” outside the investment bank, “resilience” within it.
Some further highlights:
Impairment performance in unsecured credit continued to improve and charges remained negligible in mortgages.
Excellent profit growth at Barclays Wealth was driven by higher transactional income and strong inflows of client deposits and invested assets.
We expect the year end Tier 1 ratio to be in line with our target of 7.25%.
Barclays liquidity remains strong and we continue to see good inflows of deposits.
All in all, it seems, Barclays expects to meet current market expectations for 2007.
Doubters should call +44 208 322 2723 at 9.00am for the conference call.