A sign hangs above an entrance to a branch of Barclays Plc Bank in the City of London, UK
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | fake pictures
Barclays posted a net income of £ 695 million ($ 765.64 million) for the first half of 2020, while increasing its coronavirus-related provisions.
The British bank added another £ 1.6 billion to its credit impairment charges during the second quarter, bringing the total level to £ 3.7 billion at the end of the first half.
CEO Jes Staley told CNBC that the total level of these loan loss reserves was reached based on “very conservative economic assumptions going forward.”
“Right now, how we look at how economies work is actually a little bit better than the assumptions we’ve put into our models,” Staley told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”.
Other metrics at the end of the first semester:
- The CET 1 ratio grew to 14.2%, from 13.1% at the end of the first quarter.
- Revenue reached £ 11.6 billion, up from £ 10.7 billion a year ago.
The bank said it will decide on future dividends and its capital return policy at the end of the fiscal year. The stock is down 37% since the start of the year.
Despite the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, Barclays UK has seen “encouraging” numbers on mortgage applications.
Staley told CNBC that there have been more UK mortgage applications in the past few weeks than at the same time last year.
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