Barclays' under fire sales and trading business has posted its best-ever year so far in 2020 as the Covid-19 crisis has led to whipsawing markets, while total profits across the group for the third quarter came in ahead of market expectations. 

The UK lender made profits of £611m compared to a loss of £292m last year, ahead of analyst expectations as revenues in its corporate and investment bank helped offset higher provisions for soured loans. Barclays’ credit impairments hit £600m in the quarter, higher than last year, but a significant reduction on the previous three months and less than the £1bn analysts had predicted.