The newly-formed personal and corporate banking arm of Barclays - containing the wealth business - reported first-half results, but gave no figures on the wealth operation. The bank also announced it was pulling out of a US programme over account data.

The newly-formed Personal & Corporate Banking arm of UK-listed Barclays, which now includes its old wealth arm, said yesterday its total first-half 2014 income rose 1.0 per cent year-on-year to £4.361 billion ($7.386 billion).

Earlier this year, the bank folded the old wealth and investment management business into the PCB business arm. Net interest income at PCB rose 7 per cent year-on-year to £3.057 billion, it said in a statement today.

Pre-tax profit rose 23 per cent to £1.468 billion. The cost/income ratio of the division was 61 per cent, down from 69 per cent at the end of December last year.

“The wealth and investment management business has made great progress on its transformation journey and its contribution to PCB’s half year results reinforces the positive impact the strategy is having on its profitability and sustainability.  The underlying business remains robust and well positioned for the future and it continues to secure significant new clients in target markets around the world,” Ashok Vaswani, head of Personal and Corporate Banking, said.

A view through the bank’s results statement did not yield a figure for assets under management held by clients in the old wealth and investment arm.

“Barclays Wealth and Investment Management (W&IM) has made strong progress in delivering the strategy announced last year to reposition the business. This has included simplifying the operating model and improving the control environment. We are already seeing the impact of these changes in the financial results with an improvement in the cost profile of the business driving strong PBT growth,” a spokesperson told this publication when asked about any figures. The bank said no AuM figure could be provided.

In the previous results for the first quarter of 2014, the Barclays Wealth and Investment Management arm reported total client assets at the end of March at £198.3 billion, down £3 billion from the end of last year. Barclays said its wealth and investment arm logged a 22 per cent rise in pre-tax profit when costs of its Transform programme are taken out.

The decision to create the PCB division – ending the wealth arm’s status as a stand-alone division – has caused controversy. It is understood that Peter Horrell, who was head of wealth and investment management and who is leaving Barclays at the end of this year, was prompted to step down.

For the banking group as a whole, adjusted pre-tax profit fell 7 per cent to £3.349 billion, largely as a result, it said, of currency movements and a cut in the profits of the investment banking business; this was partly offset by the PCB results, and those of Barclaycard and its non-core area.

US programme

In its statement yesterday, Barclays announced that two of its entities have pulled out of the US-Swiss programme concerning undeclared US account holders.

WealthBriefingAsia understands that the bank believes it has no undeclared client money in the Alpine state. Barclays announced interim results today (see here).

"Barclays Bank (Suisse) SA and Barclays Bank PLC Geneva Branch were participating in the Programme; however, following a structured review of their US related accounts, it was determined that continued participation in the Programme was not warranted. As a result, Barclays Bank (Suisse) SA and Barclays Bank PLC Geneva Branch have withdrawn from the Programme,” the bank said.

The Swiss and US governments agreed in August last year on a programme through which banks with Swiss operations could state whether they were sure, or were unsure, of holding such undeclared money. It is estimated that a third or more of Switzerland’s roster of over 300 banks have entered the programme, administered by the US Department of Justice. It is designed to resolve a long-running dispute about tax evasion between the countries.