Barclays sets aside another £600m to cover PPI claims

Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) has set aside another £600m to meet compensation claims for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) in its third quarter.

This brings the total provision that the lender has made towards PPI claims to £1bn for the past two quarters.

The scandal has collectively cost the banking industry more than £30bn to cover the cost of claims.

Analysts expect this could be the bank's last charge for PPI, after the Financial Conduct Authority moved the deadline for all claims to be made by June 2019.

Barclays' statutory profit before tax was down 34% to £837m compared to the previous quarter.

The bank reported a fall in net operating profit for the period, down to £4.7bn from £5bn for the same time last year.

Chief (Taiwan OTC: 3345.TWO - news) executive Jes Staley remains optimistic about the prospects of restructuring operations at the bank.

This includes selling down and disposing of its hinterland businesses as quickly as possible in order to focus on US and UK operations.

"Our core businesses are performing well, non-core rundown is approaching the final lap toward closure, we are on top of costs, and our capital position is resilient with strong reasons for confidence in meeting our end state target," Mr Staley said.

Earlier this month, Barclays announced plans to sell its Egyptian unit to Attijariwafa Bank (Paris: MA0000011827 - news) .

This year, the lender has also reduced its stake in Barclays Africa and sold its Barclaycard credit card operations in Spain and Portugal.