Barclays takes a beating amid torrid time for banks

The high street lender saw trading in its shares temporarily suspended for the second time in less than a month as the stock tanked by as much as 11%.

The collapse of the share price - which has fallen 41% in the past year - came as the bank reported a 2% fall in underlying pre-tax profits to £5.4 billion after it took a further £1.45 billion charge for payment protection insurance mis-selling in the fourth quarter.

It also announced a group-wide shake-up that will see the bank split into two divisions - Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate and International - and the group offload most of its stake in its Africa business over the next two to three years.

Its figures cap off a torrid results season for the major banks, with Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Santander all stomaching further PPI charges, as the mis-selling scandal continues to loom large over the industry.

One analyst branded Barclays annual performance as “pretty dismal”, with pre-tax profits down 8% to £2.1 billion on a bottom-line basis, while its investment bank turned in a £146 million loss in the fourth quarter.

Profits at the retail arm of the bank slipped back in the final quarter of the year, falling 23% to £657 million compared with the third quarter of 2015.

The bank also forecast a gloomy start to the year, with the first quarter set to be weaker than last year in the face of turbulent market conditions and a “particularly strong March in 2015”.

Jes Staley, who replaced Antony Jenkins at the helm in December, insisted the bank’s performance in 2015 showed Barclays “is fundamentally on the right path, and is, at its core, a very good business”.