U-turn and profits dip add up to tricky sell for Barclays

Barclays now wants to scale down its investment arm and concentrate more on retail banking. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Barclays chief executive CS Venkat­akrishnan has a tough act to follow. Just days after rival NatWest revealed its biggest profit since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007, the Barclays boss will be delivering much less cheering news: cost cuts, job losses and restructuring plans are all expected to feature in the bank’s first major strategy update in a decade.

Tuesday’s results will also be a lesson in salesmanship: how to promise better times after reporting yet another slip in annual profits.