Barclays on Thursday struck a defiant tone, arguing it had suffered less damage than some rival banks from the turmoil in the credit markets and did not need to boost its capital reserves significantly. Barclays executives said the bank was keeping all options open with regard to bolstering its capital ratios as it revealed it had written down the value of debt securities on its balance sheet by £1.7bn. However, the bank said it was standing by its previous target of a 5.25% core Tier 1 capital ratio – viewed by many analysts as too low. Barclays’ position met with scepticism from analysts and investors, who believe the bank will be forced to hold much higher capital reserves. On Thursday night Moody’s downgraded the outlook for Barclays’ debt and deposit ratings, arguing that further writedowns were possible.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 5:37 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with barclays. Edit this entry.