Barclays Plc, Britain's third biggest bank, beat expectations with a 35 percent jump in annual profits on Tuesday, as growth in investment banking and fund management countered a steep rise in bad debts.
Barclays reported record pretax profit of 7.14 billion pounds for 2006, up from 5.28 billion a year earlier and above an average forecast of 7.01 billion based on 18 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.
Barclays said its bad-debt charge was 2.15 billion pounds last year, up 37 percent from 2005, as UK borrowers struggled to pay back loans at its Barclaycard credit card unit.
Read more at Reuters South Africa
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