These provisions, teamed with an additional PPI redress provision of £150m, meant that statutory profit before tax decreased 26% to £1,337m reflecting a net loss of £511m.
Total provisions of £2,050m have now been made for forex investigations and litigation.
However, Chief executive Antony Jenkins announced that group adjusted profits before tax increased by 9% to £1,848m which were attributed to improvements in its investment bank and personal and corporate banking sectors.
He said:
"Our Core business, the future of Barclays, generated an adjusted PBT of £2.1bn, up 14% and representing our best quarterly performance in several years. Return on average equity was close to 11%, while return on average tangible equity was above 13%.
"The Investment Bank had a good Q1, with PBT up 37%, representing a performance which is more indicative of the potential of the franchise following the repositioning undertaken last year.
"Adjusted PBT for the Group increased by 9%, and our fully loaded CET1 ratio improved to 10.6%, in spite of the conduct provisions taken. Costs were down 7%, RWAs in Barclays Non-Core shrank by £10bn in the period, and we can see positive jaws across the Group.
"This further demonstrates that the Transform strategy is working and, while there is more to do, the business is starting to realise its potential.
"Resolving legacy conduct issues is also an important part of our plan to transform Barclays. We are working hard to expedite their settlement and have taken further provisions of £800m this quarter, primarily relating to Foreign Exchange.
"While we still have much to do, I am pleased with how we’ve begun 2015.”
Graham Spooner, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, commented:
“This morning, Barclays announced its first quarter results, amidst a new £800m provision over foreign-exchange activities. Net profit came in at £465m, compared to £965m in the same period last year. The provisions overshadowed what Barclays said had otherwise been its best quarter in years, once one-off charges are stripped out. New chairman, John McFarlane, recently wrote to shareholders to say that whilst the issues from the past “unfortunately still haunt us,” the bank has a solid foundation.
“The bank has shown signs of improvement as a result of its ongoing restructuring. Barclays has successfully cut its costs by 7% and is continuing to work toward its goal of shedding staff, shrinking its investment bank and improving the group’s capital strength."
