London: British bank Barclays dived into a first-quarter net loss, it said Thursday, following a huge US fine over its conduct in the run-up to the global financial crisis.
The London-listed financial services giant suffered a loss after taxation of £764 million ($1.07 billion, 874 million euros) in the three months to the end of March, Barclays said in a results statement.
That contrasted with a modest net profit of £190 million in the same part of 2017.
The lender agreed last month to pay a $2 billion fine to resolve a fraud case involving mortgage derivatives sold in the run-up to the 2008 global financial crisis.
Barclays, whose operations span more than 40 countries, has about 120,000 employees around the world. Its main hubs are in London and New York.
"This quarter we ... reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice to resolve issues related to the sale of Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities between 2005 and 2007," said chief executive Jes Staley.
"While the penalty was substantial, this settlement represents a major milestone for Barclays, putting behind us a significant decade-old legacy matter," added the American banking boss.
The US settlement, equivalent to £1.4 billion, made Barclays the latest major bank to be sanctioned for crisis-era fraud nearly a decade after the collapse of large New York financial institutions dealing in mortgage-backed derivatives sparked a global recession.
Federal prosecutors also reached settlements last month with two former Barclays executives over their roles in the sale and trading of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), a type of investment derivative that bundled home loans into securities sold to investors.
Barclays added Thursday that it also booked an extra £400 million in costs for payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling claims, after experiencing rising complaints over the quarter.
The lender said that it faced a pre-tax loss of £236 million in the first three months of 2018. It had logged a huge £1.68-billion profit last time around on cost-cutting and non-core asset sales.
In a separate development earlier this month, meanwhile, Staley was reportedly fined up to £2.0 million by UK regulators after he breached rules by trying to uncover a whistleblower.
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