British bank Barclays said its first-quarter profit rose 15% from a year ago as strong growth at its investment bank arm made up for a big jump in bad debts.
Trading in April had been 'generally consistent with the overall trend for February and March after an exceptional January,' Britain's third biggest bank said.
Barclays said its pre-tax profit came to £1.37 billion sterling for the January-March quarter, up from £1.19 billion a year ago.
Profits at Barclays Capital jumped 361% to £907m, driven by growth in the United States after last year's acquisition of Lehman Brothers' US operations.
Impairment charges and other credit provisions jumped to £2.31 billion from £1.29 billion. About half of that rise was due to growth and currency movements and half was due to a worsening economy and maturation of loans, it said.
