9:20 am, February 14, 2025
Barclays has become the latest British bank to put aside tens of millions of pounds in order to handle the fallout of the motor finance crisis.
The outfit yesterday published its annual results, which revealed that the bank has assigned a whopping £90m to dealing with potential payouts
The hefty amount is well short of the £165m that Close Brothers has budgeted and the £295m put to one side by Santander. Meanwhile, it is absolutely dwarfed by the £450m, which Lloyds is expecting to spend.
Barclays pulled out of the motor finance sector in 2019 with finance director, Anna Cross, admitting that the bank only had a ‘relatively low market share’ in the ‘low single digits’.
She added that the money assigned to handling any redress scheme was ‘subject to significant uncertainty’, as the industry awaits the result of Close Brothers’ Supreme Court appeal.
That hearing is set to take place in April, with representatives from The Treasury set to give evidence, following an intervention from chancellor Rachael Reeves.
Elsewhere in Barclays’ accounts, it was revealed that the firm reported a pre-tax profit of £8.1bn for 2024, a 24% leap from the £6.6bn it generated in 2023.
Income for its investment bank soared by 28% over the final quarter of the year amid stronger activity in equity markets and increased deal-making.
Group chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, known within the bank as Venkat, said: ‘In 2024, we met our financial targets, delivering for our customers and clients, with operational and financial performance improvement driven by disciplined execution of the three-year plan.’
Despite the performance, the bank’s share price still fell 4.7% to 293.25p when trading closed yesterday (Thurs) evening.
