Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) announced a further £1 billion share buyback and nudged its interim dividend up 3.5% as profits came in higher than expected despite a decline in investment banking fees compared to last year.
The FTSE 100-listed lender reported a 14% rise in income to £7.2 billion for the second quarter of 2025, with Barclays UK up 12%, UK Corporate up 17%, Barclays Investment Bank up 10% and US Consumer flat.
Net interest income, up 16% to £3.5 billion, was in line with forecasts, but a 16% fall in investment banking fees to £568 million was below the £601.7 million average City estimate.
Group pre-tax profit jumped 30% to £2.48 billion, beating the consensus forecast of £2.26 billion.
Loan-loss provisions were little different from previous quarters, while the net interest margin improved to 3.55% from 3.22% in the first quarter and 3.15% a year ago.
Chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said: "We remain on track to achieve the objectives of our three-year plan, delivering structurally higher and more stable returns for our investors.
"At the mid-point of the plan, with six quarters of consistent execution, we have achieved over half of the circa £30 billion planned UK risk weighted assets (RWAs) growth, half of the target income growth and realised two-thirds of the £2 billion planned gross cost efficiency savings."
He said the new buyback reflected "strong organic capital generation and common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 14.0%", with a half-year dividend of 3p per share, up from 2.9% a year ago.
Altogether this equates to £1.4 billion of shareholder distributions for the first half, which he said was a 21% increase year-on-year.