Barclays profit falls sharply as coronavirus hurts borrowers

LONDON: Barclays set aside £2.1bil pounds (US$2.6bil) to cover a likely spike in loan losses as thousands of its corporate and consumer borrowers battle to cope with the financial fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The British bank booked first-quarter pretax profits of £923mil, down 38% from £1.5bil in the first quarter of 2019 and shy of the £1.27bil average of analysts’ forecasts compiled by the bank.