Barclays says helping with FX probe, profits fall

Barclays said it is cooperating with regulators investigating the possible manipulation of currency trading by major banks after reporting profits fell by a quarter following a slump in its investment bank earnings.

Barclays said on Wednesday it was reviewing its foreign exchange trading "covering a several year period" and was cooperating with authorities investigating possible attempts to manipulate certain benchmark currency exchange rates.

It joined UBS and Deutsche Bank , who said on Tuesday they were cooperating with regulators probing alleged rigging in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.

The investigation adds to a string of regulatory probes to hinder Barclays boss Antony Jenkins, who took over as chief executive 14 months ago and is trying to rebuild the bank's reputation after a series of scandals.

 

Barclays reported an underlying pretax profit of 1.4 billion pounds for the three months to the end of September, down from 1.9 billion a year ago but above an average forecast of 1.25 billion from analysts polled by the company.

Profits at its investment bank fell to 463 million pounds, down from 988 million a year ago and below expectations. It was the unit's lowest profit since the end of 2011 and was largely due to a 44% slump in revenues in its fixed income, currency and commodities in the latest quarter.

Barclays said its common equity Tier 1 capital ratio under full Basel rules improved to an estimated 9.6% including the 5.8 billion pounds it raised in a rights issue last month.