Barclays Investment Bankers Seize on Deal Boom as Fees Surge
- Best quarter on record for British lender’s investment bank
- Group earnings beat forecasts as economy recovers from Covid
Barclays Plc’s bankers made the most of the booming deals market, delivering a record quarter and helping offset more muted earnings in its trading unit.
Investment banking fees at the London-based lender soared 59% to 971 million pounds ($1.3 billion), more than double the jump that analysts had expected and mirroring the strong performance of U.S. peers. That helped cushion revenue from a 20% drop in fixed-income trading as the rally that drove profits a year ago petered out.
“Investment banking fees in the primary side, whether its advisory, debt capital markets, equity capital markets, we had the highest quarter in the history of Barclays,” Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.
“I think you’ll see variable compensation higher this year given that they’ve generated record profits,” Staley said.