LONDON, April 1, 2026, 13:10 BST
Barclays PLC said on Wednesday it had bought back 105.5 million shares since Feb. 10, pressing on with a £1 billion repurchase programme. Separate filings showed March-end voting share capital at 13.73 billion shares and 3.49 million new ordinary shares admitted to trading during the month. 1
The update landed a day after Barclays paid its 5.6 pence full-year dividend, keeping capital returns front and centre. A buyback, where a company buys and cancels its own shares, trims the share count, and investors are trying to judge how long Barclays can keep that pace while UK car-finance compensation and stress in private credit remain live risks. 2
That matters because Barclays told investors in February it expected to return more than £15 billion of capital over 2026 to 2028. Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, wrote after those results that the plan “looks pretty comfortable.” 3
Barclays reported 2025 pretax profit of £9.1 billion in February, up from £8.1 billion a year earlier, and set out £3.7 billion of total capital distributions for 2025, including the latest buyback and the final dividend. Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan said then the bank would return more than £15 billion to shareholders between 2026 and 2028. 4
A Form 6-K filed on Wednesday showed Barclays had repurchased 105,497,346 shares since Feb. 10 at an average price of 424.259 pence and planned to cancel them. Separate RNS statements said Barclays had 13,725,209,260 ordinary shares with voting rights at March 31 and had admitted 3,493,319 additional ordinary shares to the London Stock Exchange main market over March. 1
Barclays shares rose with the broader sector on Wednesday, up between 3.4% and 4.1% by late morning in London as hopes of a near-term de-escalation in the Iran war lifted bank stocks. Heavyweight lenders gave the biggest boost to the FTSE 100. 5
Still, the payout story is under pressure. The Financial Conduct Authority said this week the UK motor finance industry would have to pay about £9.1 billion to compensate motorists over unfair car loans, with Barclays, Lloyds and Close Brothers among the lenders caught by the scheme. 6
Private credit is another watchpoint. The Bank of England said on Wednesday the war had raised financial-stability risks and pointed to the February failure of specialist lender Market Financial Solutions, adding that major banks and private-credit funds including Barclays and Jefferies face a shortfall of more than £1.3 billion. 7
Reuters reported in February that Barclays was among lenders to MFS. Citi analysts said then that reported figures on the bank’s exposure warranted caution because banks often arrange loans without holding all of the risk on their own balance sheets. 8
There is U.S. exposure to weigh too. Finance Director Anna Cross said in February Barclays had “a number of levers” to offset the effect of a proposed U.S. cap on credit-card rates, including lower costs and lower impairment charges, while Britzman flagged the bank’s sizeable U.S. card business as an area to watch. 9
For now, Wednesday’s filings show Barclays is still moving steadily through the buyback rather than pulling back. Whether that pace holds will depend on how much fresh strain comes from UK redress costs, private-credit cleanup and the U.S. consumer business. 1
