The pre-tax profits were 92 per cent ahead of 2008 figures. Probably more relevant is its £9.6bn of retained earnings. It seems that Barclay’s has become a much safer bank over the past year. Barclay’s gross lending and assets are now equivalent to 20 times its equity capital, in other words the bank is a lot less likely to go bankrupt than last year.

The profits were buoyed by its investment banking arm and the sale of part of the business last year to raise substantial funds. In the UK, Barclay’s made a £612m profit from retail banking and £749m from commercial banking. And to cap of a great feel good factor about banking, Chief Executive John Varley and President of the bank Bob Diamond have sacrificed payouts, because of the increased public interest into bank bonuses.

To read more on this story go to bbc.co.uk. What are your thoughts on the bosses who turned down their bonuses? Let us know your thoughts.

Its not all bad news for Seegers, who is expected to receive a payoff of at least £700,000 he has been at Barclays for barely three years. Barclays are creating a new global retail banking business that will be run by Antony Jenkins, who is being promoted from Barclaycard.

Corporate and investment banking and wealth management will be created to include investment bank Barclays Capital, commercial banking and Barclays Wealth, the private banking group, it means they are splitting from its commercial business that was run by Seegers.

Chief executive John Varley said “I am sad these changes result in Frits leaving the group. Frits has had a transformational impact on our retail and commercial businesses globally. I am extremely grateful for the energy and commitment he has brought to Barclays and for the momentum he created during the last three years.”

To read more on this story go to guardian.co.uk. What do you think of the golden handshake of £700,000 for 3 years work? Let us know your thoughts.

The completion of the deal, is expected in Quarter one 2010, the firms will explore joint opportunities in the UK retail long-term savings and investments sector. John Charcol’s senior technical manager Ray Boulger, has agreed that Barclays would be able to add to its market share through reaching new customers, but he regretted the loss of Standard Life Bank.

Boulger added: “The deal will increase Barclays’s access to customers, but it is probably too small to have a significant impact on its operations. However, it is bad for competition that there is one fewer lender. Although Standard Life was uncompetitive towards the end, it was active in the buy-to-let sector and offered deals which other lenders did not.”

A spokesperson for Barclays, Michael O’Toole said the deal was crucial to its aim of becoming the strongest UK retail bank. To read more on this story go to mortgagesolutions-online.com.

Those with a new tracker mortgage will see these revised rates from 6 March. Barclays are also to reduce interest rates on their other products; this also includes business overdraft rates, as well as a majority of local business loans.

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managing director of mortgages, mark Parsons has said that current and savings accounts will be kept at current levels. Most savers are already feeling the pinch from recent interest rate cuts, so Barclay’s decision to keep the rates at current levels will be welcomed by their customers.

Source online diovan

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The Government is now having to come to terms with the fact that if they do help Barclays, then they could see the UKs fourth largest bank being delivered automatically to the Middle East, this is due to a clause that had been agreed by the bank in October.

Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who are members of the Abu Dhabi royal family, as well as two Qatari investment vehicles decided to invest £5.3 billion in Barclays in October. In return, they took a series of investment structures, which were on the complicated side. The bulk of these were “mandatory convertible notes”.

The terms state that the investors have to wait seven months for delivery of those shares, which will convert to 153.276p. If at any time until June 30 Barclays

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manages to raise more capital at a lower price, then those Middle East investors will be able to take their shares at that lower level as well.

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Barclays (LON:BARC) announced they were cutting over 400 jobs from its IT departments in London, Northampton and Cheshire.

The job cuts include 250 contractors and 158 permanent staff who had duplicate roles across the entire Barclays group, this adds to the doom and gloom that is surrounding the financial sector today.

It’s not certain at present if the job cuts at Barclays include compulsory redundancies according to the banks spokeswomen as they have only just started the process, she also added that Barclays will be offering several options for the staff members who are affected, including other roles within the bank.

The UKs largest trade union, Unite said that the cut’s to the Barclays workforce comes as a bitter blow.
Employees across the financial sector are under huge pressure as they continue to fear for their jobs, and the job cuts at Barclay’s signals there is still worse to come.

Source: Guardian

Barclays (LON:BARC) mortgage arm Woolwich have announced they will be reducing their Standard Variable rate (SVR) by 1.15 percent to 5.49 percent following the bank of England interest rate cut today, not such a great reduction considering Woolwich did not make any cuts in November.

HSBC (LON:HSBA) have agreed they will also cut their SVR by at least 1 percent, Bristol & West also said they will reduce their SVR by at least 1 percent following the base cut.

Customers of Halifax will reap the benefits of the interest rate cut if they hold an existing tracker rate mortgage that pegs the bank of England base rate, as they have agreed to pass on the full 1 percent rate cut. Halifax did have a clause in its tracker mortgage contracts stating that they do not have to pass on any reductions if the BOE base rate reaches 3 percent.

Lloyds TSB (LON:LLOY) which are in the process of merging with HBOS were the first to announce they will be cutting their SVR to 4 percent. However as the bank states that it’s SVR will never be more than 2 percent above the base rate. Lloyds did not have an alternative.

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If you have a tracker mortgage with Lloyds TSB (LON:LLOY), Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) or Barclays (LON:BARC), you will be pleased to hear that these lenders do not have the hidden Collar clause in their existing tracker contacts. Trackers mortgages are pegged to the Bank of England base rate so are affected if the Bank of England raises or reduces the base interest rate.

With the Bank of England cutting the interest rate by a further 1 percent today, those that are on tracker mortgages, should benefit. Lloyds TSB vowed they would pass the full rate cut on to its existing customers.

For example if you held a tracker mortgage with Lloyds TSB at 0.75 percent over the Bank of England Base Rate, your new rate would be 2.75 percent as the base rate now stands at 2 percent, that if they stand by the word and do pass on the full rate cut.

However, if you hold a Tracker rate with Nationwide Building Society they have a collar clause that kicks in when the base rate falls below 2.75 percent. Other lenders like Halifax have a clause that gives them the option to not pass on the rate cut if the base rate falls below 3 percent.

Source: money.msn

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With the markets so volatile, Barclays Plc (LON:BARC) started trading on three new Brazilian Exchange Traded Funds in Sao Paulo, a move to ensure more diverse and more easily tradable funds.

The Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) the first created by Barclays in Brazil, replicate the BM&FBovespa Small Cap index, the BM&FBovespa MidLarge Cap index and the Bovespa Index of the 66 most traded stocks. PIBB Fundo de Indice Brasil- 50 Brasil Tracker was the first Brazilian ETF and was created in 2004.

Marcelo Allain, Banco Barclays Director, said that the type of product they have their bring benefits for the time we are living in, and that the fund has the benefit that investors can enter and exit at any time and can better control their investment risk”. He told reporters.

Source: Bloomberg

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Barclays (LON:BARC) mortgage arm, Woolwich and Abbey (LON:ANLA), owned by Santander the Spanish banking giant have slashed their rates for the second time since the Bank of England cut the key interest rate by 1.5 percent.

All of the main UK banks have come under criticism recently after they dismissed the urges by the government to kick-start the economy by passing the rate cut onto their customers.

Abbey has now slashed its 5-year fixed rate deal by us much as 0.45 percent, putting its best rate at 5.04 percent. However this is only available for borrowers with 60 percent Loan-to-Value, this particular deal holds an arrangement fee of 5.04 percent. Abbey has also reduced its rates on both 2 –year and 3-year fixed rate products.

Woolwich, Barclay’s mortgage arm, has cut its mortgage rates by up to 0.7 percent, putting its best fixed rate at 4.29 percent for a two year fixed. Woolwich has also introduced a new range of Tracker Mortgage. The lifetime tracker mortgage from the Woolwich is at 4.99 percent. Although you will still need a hefty deposit to benefit from either of the products above.

Source: fairinvestment