Barclays Q1 profit falls 33% as investment banking slowdown bites

Investment banking profits fell by 31% for the quarter, driven by reduced trading activities

Barclays reported a worse than expected 33 percent slump in pretax profits for the first three months of the year, as the lender followed its US peers in reporting falling investment banking revenues in a weak global market environment.

Barclays said first quarter profits fell to 793 million pounds ($1.15 billion), just below the average forecast of 846 million pounds from analysts polled by the company.

The bank reported an attributable profit of 433 million pounds for the quarter, down 7 percent.

Barclays had flagged the poor performance in its investment banking division, warning on Apr. 5 that it expected weak results in the unit compared to the same period in 2015.