Barclays' annual profits fall to £5.4bn

Barclays has reported a fall in annual profits as it announced a group-wide shake-up and took a further hit for payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling.

The banking giant posted underlying pre-tax profits down 2% to £5.4 billion.

The results came as it said it would split the group into two divisions - Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate and International - and "sell down" its stake in its Africa business over the next two to three years.

It also announced that it would take another PPI charge of £1.45 billion, taking its total to £7.42 billion.

The bank said it awarded staff bonuses - including other incentives - of £1.7 billion for 2015, down from £1.9 billion the year before.

This included £976 million in bonuses across its investment banking business, down from £1 billion in 2014.

But it said £661 million of bonuses for 2015 across the group were deferred, while the investment bank deferred £579 million of its awards for the year.

Barclays said it was splitting the group into two divisions as part of ring-fencing rules to separate riskier investment banking from retail banking in order to protect public savings in the event of another financial crash.

Jes Staley, group chief executive, said the performance showed Barclays "is fundamentally on the right path, and is, at its core, a very good business".