Barclays revises 2012 profits higher after accounting changes

Banking giant Barclays on Tuesday restated its 2012 financial results, saying that changes to accounting rules mean that last year's profits should have been over half a billion pounds higher.

The company released an updated version of its full-year results that take into account the IFRS 10 and IAS 19 rules which came into effect on January 1st 2013.

The implementation of IFRS 10 introduces new criteria to determine whether entities in which the group has interests should be consolidated. Barclays said it consolidated some entities and deconsolidated others.

Meanwhile, the adopted IAS 19 rules require actuarial gains and losses arising from defined benefit pension schemes to be recognised in full. The bank had previously deferred these over the remaining average service lives of the employees.

The combined impact of these changes has boosted its adjusted profit before tax from the previously stated £7,048m to £7,599m.

IFRS 10 gave a £573m boost to the bottom line while IAS 19 made £22m dent.

The adjusted return on equity percentage has risen from 7.8% to 9.0%, however the company's core tier-one capital ratio has fallen from 10.9% to 10.8%.

The stock was up 0.12% at 297.1p in afternoon trade on Tuesday, having erased earlier losses following the statement.