Barclays has added to the growing list of major bank successes by raising its 2025 guidance and revealing a $667 million share buyback in its third-quarter earnings.
The big bank’s announcement comes despite its pre-tax profit for the third quarter being £2.1 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations and a 7% decline compared to the same period in 2024.
In Q3, Barclays US Consumer Bank (USCB) income rose by 19%, driven by repricing initiatives, business expansion, and the acquisition of the General Motors co-branded cards portfolio (GM portfolio), partly offset by the appreciation of GBP against USD.
Today, C. S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays Group CEO told investors, “I continue to be pleased with the ongoing momentum of Barclays’ financial performance over the last seven quarters. We delivered RoTE of 10.6% in Q325 and 12.3% year-to-date.”
“We are therefore upgrading our 2025 RoTE guidance to greater than 11% and reaffirming our 2026 target of greater than 12%. This is driven by a stronger outlook for stable income and an earlier than planned delivery of efficiency savings. Moreover, it comes despite an additional charge for motor finance redress.”
According to Venkatakrishnan, the company has been robustly and consistently generating capital for its shareholders over the last nine quarters.
“Consequently, we have decided to bring forward a portion of our full-year distribution plans, with a £500m share buyback announced today and we now plan to move to quarterly share buyback announcements. Our consistent and strong delivery has laid the foundations for greater performance beyond 2026, and I look forward to sharing updated targets to 2028 alongside our FY25 Results,” he concluded.
Barclays shares increased by 3.4% after the company’s announcement.
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
