The chief executive of Barclays has again rubbished suggestions of a break-up of the group's corporate and investment bank, which remains under scrutiny thanks to the arrival of a prominent activist investor earlier this year.

Speaking as the bank reported its latest earnings on Thursday, Jes Staley told reporters on a call: "We do not believe that you can take out slices of the business without significantly impacting the whole, and this includes our markets [sales and trading] business which has been generating double-digit returns."