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Barclays hiked its dividend by a fifth after reporting a rise in half-yearly profits as lower litigation costs helped boost performance easing the pressure from a challenging income environment.
For the six months ended 30 June, pre-tax profits were up 62% to £3bn from £1,7bn a year earlier even as total income fell 1% to £10.8bn, driven mainly by margin pressure in Barclays UK and lower income in Barclays International,
Barclays UK profit before tax rose to £1.1bn from £0.8bn;· Barclays international profit before tax fellt o £2.3bn from £2.7bn a year earlier.
The common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio rose to 13.4% from 13.2% seen in December last year, and was above the group's target ratio of about 13%.
Barclays raised its half-year dividend per share by 20% to 3.0p.
Looking ahead, the bank said it would continue to target 2019 and 2020 RoTE of above 9% and above 10% respectively, and vowed to reduce costs below £13.6bn for the year given the challenging income environemnt seen in the first half of the year.
'The income environment in the first half was challenging and as a result Barclays is focused on net cost reductions in the second half and expects to reduce costs for 2019 to below the £13.6bn1 low end of the Group's previous cost guidance,' the company said.