Barclays shares fall 11 per cent on news of profit fall

The bank announced a dividend cut and a restructuring that included its rolling back of its exposure in Africa as it revealed that underlying annual profits for 2015 fell to £5.4bn on income of £24.5 billion (which was down 5 per cent).

Today’s full-year numbers were worse than analysts had been expecting and the bank said it would cut its dividend by more than half to 3p per share in 2016 and 2017.

Barclays also announced a further £1.45bn provision for PPI mis-selling.

The bank said it would now slim down its 62.3 per cent stake in its Africa business in the next two to three years.

It said it also wanted to form two, main core divisions - Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate & International, a process it expects to complete by 2019.

The moves follow similar strategies undertaken by the UK’s biggest banks as they attempt to comply with tougher new banking regulations, which are designed to prevent ordinary customers suffering from decisions made by investment bankers in the event of another credit crisis.

Barclays, like most of the world’s major banks, has been tainted by - and fined for - rigging prices in both foreign exchange and Libor interest rates.

It confirmed that it was assisting both the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in their investigation about Barclays’ hiring practices in Asia, which centre on allegations that jobs were given to people with influence.

In the UK, the bank said it had put aside a further £1.45bn this quarter to meet compensation claims for mis-selling Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).

That bring the total for this year to £2.77bn. Barclays has so far set aside £7.42bn for wrongly selling this insurance for loans.

Meanwhile, chairman John McFarlane said Barclays backs the UK remaining in the EU, when the issue comes to a vote in the referendum on 23 June.

“On balance we think it is in the interests of our customers and clients for the UK to remain in the EU,” the chairman said.

“We have modest interests domestically on the continent, but provide significant services to European companies from London. More importantly, we are heavily reliant on a successful UK domestic and international economy and feel this is enhanced through the UK’s membership.”