The resilience of the two British banking giants that turned down taxpayer funds during last year's banking bailout was demonstrated today when both reported multibillion-pound profits today for the first six months of the year. Barclays and HSBC both said that pre-tax first-half profits hit £2.98 billion, representing an 8 per cent rise for Barclays but a 57 per cent plunge for HSBC - Europe's largest banking group - after a rise in bad debt charges to some £8.3 billion. Barclays also saw a rise in bad debts from consumers in the US and UK but the overall group result was helped by a buoyant performance by Barclays Capital, its investment arm, which saw net income double to £4.2 billion for the period. That success means BarCap's 23,000 staff are in line to see average pay and bonuses double to almost £200,000 for the full year if results remain on track - despite the risk of a public and political backlash so soon after the banking meltdown.
The resilience of the two British banking giants that turned down taxpayer funds during last year's banking bailout was demonstrated today when both reported multibillion-pound profits today for the first six months of the year.
Barclays and HSBC both said that pre-tax first-half profits hit £2.98 billion, representing an 8 per cent rise for Barclays but a 57 per cent plunge for HSBC - Europe's largest banking group - after a rise in bad debt charges to some £8.3 billion.
Barclays also saw a rise in bad debts from consumers in the US and UK but the overall group result was helped by a buoyant performance by Barclays Capital, its investment arm, which saw net income double to £4.2 billion for the period.
That success means BarCap's 23,000 staff are in line to see average pay and bonuses double to almost £200,000 for the full year if results remain on track - despite the risk of a public and political backlash so soon after the banking meltdown.
