Barclays set aside extra £800 million to cover potential settlements

Barclays set aside another £800 million to cover potential settlements for its alleged involvement in foreign exchange manipulation after posting a 9% increase in pre-tax profits to £1.85 billion for the first quarter of the year.

The British multinational banking and financial services company has now set aside a total of £2.05 billion to cover potential foreign exchange settlements.

In 2014 six leading banks reached a settlement with American and British regulators over their involvement in the alleged rigging the foreign exchange market.

However, Barclays has not reached a deal yet.

The bank’s finance director, Tushar Morzaria, told reporters on a conference call that the new provision “reflects the further discussions that we’ve been having with a number of regulators and agencies around the world across multiple jurisdictions and it really reflects our best estimate of the full cost of these related matters”.

Morzaria said that Barclays is trying to reach agreements with authorities as soon as possible, however, the timing of any settlements was out of its hands.

“We don’t control the timetable but we’re working as hard as we can to resolve these matters,”

Chief executive Antony Jenkins said:

“Resolving legacy conduct issues is an important part of our plan to transform Barclays.

“We are working hard to expedite their settlement and have taken further provisions of £800 million this quarter, primarily relating to foreign exchange.

“While we still have much to do, I am pleased with how we’ve begun 2015.”