Barclays to top City target

BANKING giant Barclays shrugged off recent spankings over credit card charges and boardroom rule breaches, pledging today that profits this year would beat City expectations.

In a bullish trading statement chief executive Matt Barrett said: 'The strong and broadly-based performance of the first half of 2003 continued into the third quarter.

'Current trends suggest that full-year profit before tax will be somewhat better than the market consensus of £3.686bn.'

Barclays credited strong business volume growth in its core personal financial services division, a good performance from Barclaycard and a strong contribution from business banking.

The bank also said cost savings and cross-selling benefits from the Woolwich acquisition would exceed the target for this year of £330m.

Meanwhile, its provision for loans going sour was lower with the improving economic environment more than offsetting the growth in the loan book. Provisions at the markets division Barclays Capital were down sharply.

Barclays has come under fire in recent weeks for breaching recommendations on corporate governance with its plans to promote Barrett from chief executive to chairman. It has also been criticised for its misleading credit card adverts, which promised '0% for ever'.

The campaign - later cancelled on the orders of the Office of Fair Trading - appeared to work: the bank reported 'success in new customer recruitment' in the third quarter.