The new chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, will know what shareholders want from him: decent profits and fewer run-ins with regulators. Predecessor, Jes Staley, made progress on the former front but failed on the latter: he somehow survived a hefty fine for trying to unmask a whistleblower but was felled by the continuing regulatory probe into his characterisation of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Wednesday’s full-year report represented a promising inheritance for Venkatakrishnan. Pre-tax profits for 2021 hit a record £8.4bn and demonstrated that, for big banks at least, the pandemic is over. A total of £653m of credit impairments were written back. Meanwhile, return on tangible equity – a better measure of a bank’s financial performance – was 13.4%, the best in years, and every division achieved the desired double digits. Capital ratios were comfortably above target. At 6p, the dividend is almost back to pre-Covid levels and there was a spare £1bn to spray at buying back shares.
