• April 27, 2016
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Barclays releases 2016 Q1 interim management statement

On our performance Jes Staley, Group CEO, said: “This quarter we have made good early progress against the strategy update we announced on 1 March. It is the first set of results as a transatlantic consumer, corporate and investment bank operating under our new configuration of Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate & International, and they show a core business performing well in a challenging environment. 

"Core RoTE is 9.9%, within which Barclays UK posted an impressive 20.5% return on tangible equity. We can see clear growth opportunities, such as in our Consumer, Cards and Payments business, in which we want to continue to invest. The performance of our Corporate and Investment Bank was relatively resilient in a tough quarter, but there is more we must do to improve returns, and we are focused on management actions to do so. 

"We continue to target cost reductions in the Group and we are on track to meet our 2016 guidance for the core business of £12.8 billion, and our longer-term target of a Group cost to income ratio under 60%. 

"Our CET1 ratio finished the quarter at 11.3%, with a clear path to reaching our end state target, and I expect the capital ratio to increase through the course of the rest of 2016. 

"On Africa, we continue to explore opportunities to reduce our shareholding to a level that achieves regulatory deconsolidation, including capital market and strategic options, and we are pleased with the level of indicative interest in what is a high quality business. Barclays Africa is an important partner, and we are working closely with local management, including on the planning for the operational separation of the two businesses, in a way that will preserve value for shareholders in both Groups. 

"The performance of the core today shows the potential power of the Group once it is freed from the drag of Non-Core.

"We promised to accelerate the pace of progress in reducing Non-Core so that our Group performance converges with our core performance within a reasonable timeframe. Since the 1st of January, we have made progress in exiting from investment banking in nine countries, completed the sale of our Portuguese retail, wealth and SME banking businesses, and are progressing other announced sales, including the Italian branch network, the Index business and our Asian wealth business, towards completion in 2016. 

"As these deals complete we are reducing RWAs and, crucially, eliminating costs which have a direct impact on our profitability today and mask the true performance of our strong core business. This is the work we need to complete.”Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker