Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 24, 2023 4:30 AM ET

Company Participants

C.S. Venkatakrishnan - Group CEO & Executive Director

Anna Cross - Group Finance Director & Executive Director

Conference Call Participants

Jason Napier - from UBS

Operator

Welcome to Barclays Q3 2023 Results Analyst and Investor Conference Call. I will now hand over to C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Group Chief Executive, before I hand over to Anna Cross, the Groups Finance Director.

C.S. Venkatakrishnan

Good morning. Thank you for joining Anna and me on today's third quarter results call. Against a background of mixed market activity and a competitive environment for UK retail deposits, the Group generated income of 6.3 billion pounds in the quarter, down modestly year on year, excluding last year's impact from the over issuance of securities. Our profit before tax was 1.9 billion pounds with earnings per share of 8.3 pence.

We maintained a strong capital position with our CET One ratio at 14%, up around 20 basis points on the second quarter and at the top of our target range. In this context, we delivered a third quarter return on tangible equity of 11%, taking us to 12.5% for the year to date and we continue to target above 10% for the full year.

We are managing credit well, with year to date loan loss rate of 43 basis points versus our through the cycle guidance of 50 to 60 basis points costs reduced by 4% in Q Three year on year, excluding over issuance costs last year and in Q Four. We will continue to drive further efficiencies and greater productivity for the bank. We expect this to continue to contribute to delivering enhanced returns for shareholders. We will update you on these and other actions alongside our full year results in February.

Now, turning to the business highlights. We continue to grow our US cards business with End net Receivables up 11% year on year at $30 billion, and we announced a new partnership with Microsoft and Mastercard to issue Xbox's first ever co branded card in the US.

The integration of our UK wealth business and our private bank is also progressing well. We grew clients assets and liabilities to nearly 180,000,000,000 pounds and invested assets to around 105,000,000,000 pounds, with this business making nearly 900 million pounds of income in the year to date and generating attractive returns in investment banking. We led some prominent transactions in this quarter, including the Arm ICO in the US.