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Barclays reported a jump in third-quarter profit as the bank set aside less money to cover bad debts and saw no recurrence of payment protection insurance provisions that had weighed on profit in the prior-year period.
For the quarter ended 30 September, pre-tax profit rose to £1.1 billion from £0.2bn, while income was down 6% to £5.2bn year-on-year.
The bank attributed the rise in profit to 'the non-recurrence of the 2019 PPI provision.'
The credit impairment charge was £0.6bn, up 32% versus prior year but down 63% versus prior quarter.
The common equity tier 1, or CET1, ratio rose 40 basis points to 14.6%.
The bank's international business saw income rise 1% to £3.8bn, while income at Barclays UK fell 16% to £1.6bn versus prior year but up 6% versus prior quarter,
'Barclays UK also returned to profitability in the third quarter, with profit before tax of £196m, as economic activity recovered from the spring low point and impairment charges reduced,' the company said.
Net interest margin was stable at 2.51%, up from the 2.48% seen in the second quarter.
Looking ahead, the company said it expected headwinds including the low interest environment to continue to weigh on the Barclays UK performance, though estimated a sharp drop in impairment charge for the second half of the year.
'Provided macroeconomic assumptions remain consistent with expectations, we expect the H220 impairment charge to be materially below that of H120 and it is likely that the full year 2021 impairment charge will be below that of 2020,' Barclays said.