Barclays to step up revamp, keep dividend flat: chairman

London

BARCLAYS Plc chairman John McFarlane pledged to step up the pace of his overhaul of the British lender as it set aside more money to cover the cost of redress and said it will keep its dividend flat for the year.

The lender set aside an additional £600 million (S$1.28 billion) in the second quarter to compensate customers for wrongly sold payment-protection insurance, according to a statement on Wednesday. Barclays has now set aside more than £2 billion to cover the cost of settling probes into currency and other benchmark rigging.