Barclays Q3 earnings

british lender Barclays It reported a profit on Wednesday, announcing a surprise £500 million ($667 million) share buyback.

“We have been generating capital for our shareholders on a strong and consistent basis for the last nine quarters consecutively,” CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan said in a statement. he said.

“As a result, we have decided to bring forward some of our full year distribution plans with the £500 million 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 outperformance beyond 2026 and I look forward to sharing updated targets for 2028 alongside our FY 2025 Results.”

This came despite pre-tax profit in the third quarter coming in at £2.1 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations and representing a 7% decline compared to the same period in 2024.

Return on Tangible Equity for the quarter reached 10.6%, down from 12.3% in the previous year, while earnings per share stood at 10.4 pence.

Revenues of the investment banking division increased by 8% on an annual basis.

Strong investment banking returns have helped push European financial stocks higher this year. Stoxx 600 Bank Index More than 55% gains have been achieved so far through 2025. Barclays shares are up more than 35% since the beginning of the year.

Across the Atlantic, industry heavyweights JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs also reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings last week; Both companies’ results were supported by earnings growth in their investment banking units.

The sector came into the spotlight in the US after fears about the possibility of bad loans rose on Wall Street. Although stocks recovered quickly due to confidence that there was no systemic problem, uneasiness also reached European banking stocks on Friday.