Rising charges limit Barclays profits in Q3

It expects write-downs to hit £9billion for the year.

Barclays - which opted to seek out Middle Eastern funding instead of taking the Government's bail-out offer - reported pre-tax profit of £4.5billion in the year up to September 30, down 19 per cent from £5.595billion in the previous period.

Income rose by 26 per cent from £11.1billion to £13.2billion thanks to "very strong income growth at Barclays Capital and the international businesses within Global Retail and Commercial Banking".

Pre-tax profit for the third quarter was £1.56billion, down from £2.841billion the previous year.

Barclays opted to re-introduce dividends back in the second quarter, and confirmed it would pay an interim cash dividend of 1p per share on December 11 for the second half of the year. A final cash dividend for the half year will be announced in the preliminary results next February, and paid out in March. It warned the proportion of after-tax profits handed out through dividends would be "significantly lower" than in recent years.

Despite the "difficult market conditions", Barclays Wealth claimed its underlying income for the year so far was "broadly in line" with 2008, when deals such as the acquisition of the North American arm of Lehman Brothers last winter were taken into account.

Group chief executive John Varley said: "We have maintained strong income momentum in the third quarter, particularly in Barclays Capital and across the international activities of GRCB, enabling us to achieve consistent profitability across the first three quarters of 2009.

"This performance shows the resilience and diversification of our portfolio of businesses."