First-quarter profits at Barclays slide

Barclays, trying to stanch an exodus of senior dealmakers, posted a bigger- than-estimated drop in first-quarter profit as a fall in revenue from trading bonds, currencies, and commodities cut earnings from the investment bank by 49%.

Pretax profit, excluding swings in the valuation of the lender’s debt, fell 5% to £1.69bn (€2bn), missing the £1.82bn estimate of analysts provided by the bank, Barclays said in a statement.

Income from the bank’s fixed income, currencies and commodities business, known as FICC, traditionally the largest source of revenue for the investment bank, fell 41% to £1.2bn.