British bank Barclays, looking to fix a reputation that was battered last year by the Libor rate-rigging scandal, said Wednesday that it was back in the black, with a first quarter net profit of £839 million ($1.28 billion, 983 million euros), compared with a loss in the first three months of 2012. Barclays had reported a net loss of £598 million in the first three months of 2012, the bank noted in a results statement.
"While there remains much to do to build a stronger and more resilient Barclays, we are completely focused on executing our Transform programme and are making good early progress," Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins said in the statement.
The bank's profit was skewed by changes in the value of its debt and owing to an absence of the provisions seen a year earlier to compensate clients who were mis-sold insurance. Adjusted profit before tax fell by a quarter to £1.79 billion, hit in part by restructuring costs that totalled £514 million as part of Jenkins' Transform programme, the bank said. It added that bad debt provisions had fallen 10 percent to £706 million in the first quarter. Shares in the bank climbed 1.19 percent to 301.85 pence in morning deals on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was up 0.27 percent in value.
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