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Barclays (LON:BARC) was one of Footsie's biggest losers on Thursday as the banking giant reported a near 30% drop in profits for its third quarter, underlining the challenge new boss Jes Staley will have in coming months.
The former JP Morgan Chase banker was confirmed as the new chief executive yesterday, following the firing of Antony Jenkins in July.
He takes up the position in December but has already signalled in a letter to bank staff an intention to focus on areas within the group's investment banking activities - a controversial and "riskier" side of the business.
That would appear timely, as today's report revealed that the bank estimates it will need to shell out £1.1bn to pay for reforms due to regulations, which demand it “ringfence” its UK retail bank from the rest of its operations as well as pay for a bank tax unveiled in George Osborne's latest budget.
The bank today lifted a prior target for costs in its core business from to £14.9bn from US$14.5bn.
For the three months to September 30, pre-tax profit at the bank whose history dates from the 17th Century came in at £861mln compared to £1.22bn in the same period a year ago - and down from £1.7bn in the preceding quarter this year.
In its core operations, pre-tax profit remained steady at around £1.76bn compared to £1.74bn in the third quarter of 2014, but it was down from £2.1bn in the second quarter of this year.
The numbers were impacted by adjustments in the period, notably setting aside £560mln for further compensation and settlements to beleaguered customers
These were £290mln to compensate foreign exchange customers and £270mlnm to settle two claims in the US over mortgage-backed securities.
In addition, a loss of £201mln was also recognised in the period relating to the announced sale of its Portuguese retail business within non-core operations, which is due to complete in the first quarter of 2016.
Investors were decidedly non-plussed with the Barclays quarterly report and the shares sank almost 5% to 240.75p each.
Chairman John McFarlane made an attempt to downplay the negatives.
"Today's results show another quarter of progress in our core businesses alongside the early effects of some of the changes that we are making."
He added: "We are pleased that Jes Staley will join us on 1 December as Group Chief Executive Officer, earlier than expected, and we are in the final stage of appointing a Senior Independent Director and Deputy Chairman to replace Sir Mike Rake on his retirement from the board in the near future."
McFarlane said key for Barclays was three priorities - a focus on core segments and markets, generating shareholder value, and instilling a 'high performance' culture with strong ethical values.
"We will update the market on our plans for structural reform after we have agreed them with the regulator.
"Now that we have a new CEO in place, we will provide further updates on future direction at the full year results."