Barclays annual profit leaps by 13% as bank aims to hand £15bn to shareholders

Barclays said it wants to hand out more than £15 billion to shareholders over the next two years, through dividends and share buybacks.

Barclays has revealed it made £1 billion more in profits last year (Alamy/PA) (Alamy/PA)

Barclays has revealed it made £1 billion more in profits last year as it was boosted by corporate and investment banking activity and an ongoing cost-cutting drive.

The banking giant generated a pre-tax profit of £9.1 billion for 2025, a 13% increase on the £8.1 billion made in 2024.

Income from all its divisions increased, with total group income jumping by 9% year-on-year.

This soared to 16% for its corporate bank, with firms both depositing more cash and borrowing more, and 11% for the investment bank, as activity in the global financial markets accelerated.

Barclays said it wants to hand out more than £15 billion to shareholders between 2026 and 2028 through dividends and share buybacks.

Meanwhile, the bank told investors it had made cost savings worth £700 million during 2025, bringing the total to £1.7 billion over two years.

It falls slightly short of the sweeping £2 billion savings target that the bank set itself at the beginning of 2024, to achieve this year.

Nevertheless, total costs for the group increased by 5% last year, partly due to the acquisition of Tesco Bank.

It also reflects the bank setting aside an additional £235 million to cover the estimated cost of compensating motor finance customers under the financial regulator’s proposed redress scheme – bringing the total provision to £325 million.

Barclays said it considers it “more likely than not” that the compensation scheme will be implemented by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is expected to be set out this month or next.

Chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said: “Our progress in the past two years provides a strong foundation to deliver more for our customers, clients and shareholders.”

“As we outline in our plan for the next three years, we will invest further to improve customers’ experience and deepen relationships, while harnessing new technology, including AI, to improve efficiency and build segment-leading businesses and drive further growth.”