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Barclays, which has since last summer been reassuring investors that it would not be a major victim of the credit fallout, yet again sounded the all clear on Thursday.

They’ll be no immediate capital raising, though capital ratios are falling, with equity Tier 1 expected to come in below the 5.1 per cent reported in December, but Barclays has merely restated its 5.25 per cent target.

Overall, the business is ahead, with Barclays Capital remaining in profit for the year to date, and other areas of the business doing better in April than last year. Impairment in the retail bank increased only slightly, and bad debts at Barclaycard also look to be under control.

The total writedown figure for the first quarter is also as anticipated, coming in at £1bn after gains logged on BarCap debt of £700m.

The latter benefit is relatively large, notes Bruce Packard at Pali, and started to reverse in April to the tune of £500m as credit spreads narrowed. But BarCap remained in the black for the year even after last month’s move.

All rather as flagged. But credit freaks should head directly for the appendix. Just as the monolines again hit the headlines, Barclays exposure to the bond insurers is on the up. Its exposure is now £2.8bn, up from £1.4bn at the end of last year and £140m at the end of the first half of last year.

Elsewhere, Barclays teeny tiny writedowns on its portfolio of leveraged loans stand out - just £190m on a book of more than £7bn. Compare to RBS’s decison to mark its book down to 88 per cent.

But then Barclays doesn’t have the incentive of a monster rights issue to motivate its accounting. Yet.

The bank on Thursday rather sensibly, given the flip flopping by its rivals, refused to rule out an equity raising further down the line. Finance director Chris Lucas also rather poured scorn on the new practise among the UK’s banks of paying scrip dividends.

As RBS’s nil-paid shares started trading, and all the UK banks sank, Barclays joined in the falls, trading off 1.6 per cent.

Related links
Barclays statement
Barclays refuses to rule out rights issue - FT.com
Disappearing LBO writedowns… - FT Alphaville, Feb 08