Thread: Barclays Sums Don't Add Up for Doubtful

I think there's a thread on one of the forums about "tinkering with the G fund" from way back. Big discussion about using the trust funds, but the law lets them do it, they wrote the ability into the laws that created FERS.

eek, our money invested in futures...thanks Barclay. Not what we signed up for. Isn't Barclay supposed to get a (small) percentage out of this as profit for them to play around with instead of our accounts???

Originally Posted by Frixxxx

Sorry, for the miscommunication. I was referring to his comment on the politicians....Barclay's gambles the money, politicians use it for a safety net.

Oh, I see! Good point!

Slowly but surely coming clean...or are they? Don't forget, they don't have to raise capital because every 2 weeks they get a fresh infusion from 4M government employees. It's what they're doing with it that we have to worry about. The division of Barclays to watch in particular is BGI. The information I posted earlier from the TSP site names the Barclays funds that our C, S, I funds are invested in. You can go to "Fund Sheets" on tsp.gov to read it there if you like.

Barclays profit falls, leaves capital options open
Bank's $3.3 billion write-down partially offset by gains on own debt
By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch
Last update: 8:57 a.m. EDT May 15, 2008
LONDON (MarketWatch) - U.K. bank Barclays said Thursday that its first-quarter profit fell from a year earlier due to a 1.7 billion pound ($3.3 billion) write-down at its investment banking arm as it also left the door open for a possible rights issue.
The U.K.'s third-largest bank didn't give any overall figures for the quarter, but said tough capital market conditions in March dragged its bottom line lower.
Barclays' investment banking arm, Barclays Capital, remained profitable in the quarter even after its write-downs, which were partially offset by a 700 million pound gain due to changes in the value of its own debt.
The unit wrote down around 2.3 billion pounds in 2007.

Other divisions posted solid profit growth, especially its Barclaycard credit card business, which benefited from "excellent income growth" in international markets as well as lower impairments in its core U.K. business.
The group said it expects its equity Tier 1 capital ratio -- a key measure of financial strength -- to be slightly below 5.1% at the end of June and also stuck to its long-term target level of 5.25%.
Rights issue possible
However, on a conference call, Finance Director Chris Lucas said the bank is keeping all its options open for strengthening its capital positions, including selling shares to existing investors through a rights issue. The bank has also previously attracted fresh capital from China and Singapore, making sovereign wealth funds another potential source of cash.
Rivals including Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS, and Bradford & Bingley have all announced rights issues in recent weeks, driving speculation that Barclays will follow suit.
Lucas also effectively dismissed the possibility of the bank paying its interim dividend in stock, which RBS, HBOS and Bradford & Bingley have all said they will do as a further way to retain capital.
"Our view on scrip dividends is that they're not really a dividend, therefore they wouldn't be attractive to us," Lucas said, adding that the dividend -- to be decided in August -- should mirror earnings.
Citigroup analyst Tom Rayner said even if the bank does rebuild its equity Tier 1 ratio to 5.25%, it will still be among the bottom 10% of European banks by that measure and significantly behind U.K. peers after they raised more cash.
Lucas said the bank's relative capital strength hasn't constrained any of its business activities. But he did concede that it wants a capital ratio of "at least" 5.25%, having previously been happy to operate a little above or below that level.
Shares in Barclays fell 2.8% in afternoon London trading, amid broad declines for the banking sector. Shares in Barclays are down around 17% since the start of the year.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst James Hutson said he was surprised Barclays didn't announce a capital increase, adding he had been expecting both a stock dividend and a capital injection from sovereign wealth funds.
The bank raised around 3.6 billion euros from Singapore's Temasek Holdings and China Development Bank last summer as part of its unsuccessful attempt to buy ABN Amro.
Monoline exposure grows
Barclays' latest write-down included 495 million pounds against collateralized debt obligations on asset-backed securities and 1.21 billion pounds against other credit market exposures.
Overall exposure to risky debt was slightly reduced in most areas. But risk exposure to bond insurers more than doubled to 2.78 billion pounds as the underlying asset value on existing contracts fell.
Looking at trading since the end of the quarter, Barclays said profit at most divisions in April exceeded the previous year.
But Barclays Capital suffered as around 500 million pounds of the gains it made on its own debt reversed.
The division remained profitable for the year to date even after this reversal, Barclays added.