Barclays third-quarter profit hit by weak markets business

By Lawrence White and Emma Rumney

LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays reported a worse than expected profit before tax for the third quarter of 1.1 billion pounds ($1.46 billion) as a weak trading performance in its investment bank dragged down group results.

The profit figure for the quarter was well below the 1.43 billion pounds average of analysts' estimates compiled by the bank.

Barclays said it had cut compensation in its investment banking unit by 25 percent for the period.

However the slide will put further pressure on Chief Executive Jes Staley's strategy of investing in Barclays' investment bank.

Staley has championed the division amid calls from some analysts and investors to ditch a business which has in recent years struggled to match the profitability of the bank's more mundane retail and credit card units.

The bank's markets income fell 14 percent to 3.5 billion pounds in the third quarter.

That included a sharp 27 percent drop in macro income - which includes fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC)- to 1.3 billion pounds, mirroring the weak quarter endured by Barclay's U.S. rivals.

"The third quarter was clearly a difficult one for our markets business within Barclays International. A lack of volume and volatility in FICC hit markets' revenues hard across the industry, and we were no exception to this trend," Chief Executive Jes Staley said in the statement.

Equities income fell 8 percent to 1.3 billion pounds, while credit was up 3 percent at 954 million pounds.

The result marked the first time in years that Barclays has not been undergoing significant restructuring, as it re-integrated its 'non-core' division of bad assets back into the Group.

($1 = 0.7538 pounds)

(Reporting By Lawrence White and Emma Rumney, additional reporting by John Geddie; Editing Rachel Armstrong)