Barclays today said the amount of money it set aside to cover bad debts rose by 50% to top £1bn (€1.5bn) in the first half of this year.
The increase was driven by Barclaycard, where impairment charges lifted by 37% to £696m (€1bn) and caused profits in the credit card business to fall 14%.
Overall pre-tax profits for the half-year period were still ahead of market expectations, following a 37% rise to £3.67bn (€5.4bn).