Barclay's Profits Up Despite Subprime Charges

Barclays Capital has reported that its 10-month profit before tax, at £1.9 billion (about $3.9 billion), rose on a year-to-year basis despite the extreme marketwide deterioration in valuations of U.S. subprime mortgage-related exposures in October.The subprime valuation declines led to a total of £1.3 billion (approximately $2.7 billion) in net charges and writedowns at the company for the 10-month period, according to a Nov. 15 trading update. The update indicated that charges/writedowns in super-senior residential mortgage-backed security collateralized debt obligations totaled £700 million (about $1.4 billion), net of hedges; and whole-loan trading book writedowns/charges totaled £400 million (approximately $819 million), net of hedges. Barclays can be found on the Web at http://www.barcap.com.