Barclays to hand share award to staff after yearly profit surges by a quarter

Barclays has unveiled bigger profits after a stronger year for its investment bank, as its boss said he was “deeply apologetic” to customers affected by the recent technology outage.

The banking group will be handing out share awards worth £500 to the vast majority of its staff following the improved financial performance.

It reported a pre-tax profit of £8.1 billion for 2024, a 24% leap from the £6.6 billion profit generated in 2023.

Income for its investment bank soared 28% over the final quarter of the year amid stronger activity in equity markets and increased deal-making.

The UK bank also enjoyed a boost from taking control of Tesco Bank’s savings, loans and credit cards last year.

Barclays was nonetheless hit with a major technology outage earlier this month, leading its digital services to be disrupted for around two days.

Group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, known within the bank as Venkat, apologised to customers affected by the incident.

“I am deeply apologetic to all our customers for the inconvenience that was caused by that outage,” he said.

“We are absolutely focused on assisting customers who experienced general difficulty as a result of the outage, and we will strive to make sure that the people who were impacted will be compensated.”

Meanwhile, Barclays said growth in the UK last year was partly offset by mortgage costs starting to come down – which means banks generate less income from offering loans.

It comes after interest rates were cut to 4.5% last week, the lowest level in more than 18 months.

The bank revealed it gained one million new customers of its Barclaycard credit card last year as part of efforts to lend more in the UK.

And total UK deposit balances increased by £1 billion over the final quarter of the year, compared with the previous three-month period, and before taking into account the Tesco Bank acquisition.

Anna Cross, Barclays’ finance chief, said its customers remained in “robust shape”.

Card spending in January increased by 1.9%, which she said was “still lagging” behind the UK’s rate of inflation, but adding: “What we have seen is that nonessential spending is now growing more strongly than essential spending, which we see to be a good sign.

“More broadly, if we look at credit performance across the UK, delinquencies remain low and stable and repayments remain high – so the customer looks to be in robust shape.”

Furthermore, Venkat revealed the banking giant would be handing out a one-off share award worth £500 to almost all of its 90,000 global staff.

The award recognises a strong performance over the first year of the group’s three-year strategic plan, and encourages staff interests to be more closely aligned with shareholders’ interests, according to the bank.