Barclays bank

Pre-tax profits almost trebled to £8.4bn in 2021 from £3bn the previous year.

“Our strategic priorities will continue to develop the diversified business model that we have established, investing in advanced technology capabilities in our consumer businesses, delivering sustainable growth across our global Corporate and Investment Bank, and reinforcing our commitment to aiding the transition to a low-carbon economy." Chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said: "Barclays demonstrated a clear and sustainable path to growth over the course of 2021, delivering double-digit RoTE across our operating businesses, and returning £2.5bn of excess capital. In the current year, costs are expected to be "modestly higher" than £12bn due to inflationary pressures and planned investment spend, the bank noted. In the International business, the Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) delivered its strongest results to date with pre-tax profit of £5.8bn as investment banking fees income surged by 34% to a record £3.65bn, driven by a strong performance in advisory and equity capital markets. But global markets income dropped by 16% to £6.4bn as a strong performance in equities was more than offset by a 33% drop in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) income due to tighter spreads and the non-recurrence of prior year client activity levels. Barclays posted pre-tax profits of £8.4bn for the year to 31 December 2021, compared with £3bn the previous year, as return on tangible equity (RoTE) climbed to double-digits, 13.5% versus 3.2% in 2020.