Barclays, the FTSE 100-listed British bank, reported a decline in pre-tax profit for the first quarter, which however was better than expected. For the three months up to March 31, the bank recorded a pre-tax profit of 2.28 billion pounds ($2.84 billion), compared with 2.60 billion pounds in the previous year. Analysts had expected a pre-tax profit of 2.195 billion pounds, according to a consensus compiled by the bank.

The bank's total income fell to £6.95 billion from £7.24 billion the previous year, but was slightly above the consensus estimate of £6.89 billion. This 4% decline was mainly due to lower revenues from fixed-income instruments, currencies, and commodities in investment banking, lower inflation-linked revenues, and adverse product developments in Barclays' UK deposits and mortgages. However, these were partially offset by higher revenues from structural hedges, strong performance in equity trading, and growth in balances at the US consumer bank.

The net interest income of Barclays UK – the difference between the earnings from loans and the deposits paid to customers – amounted to 1.55 billion pounds with a net interest margin of 3.09%.

For the full year 2024, Barclays confirmed its revenue forecast of 10.7 billion pounds, including 6.1 billion pounds of net interest income from the UK business. The bank continues to expect that the return on equity will be above 10% and reported a return of 12.3% for the first quarter, which is above the estimates of 11.7%.