LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays <BARC.L> on Thursday reported an 82% rise in first half pre-tax profits from a year ago, its best performance for the period in a decade as it reduced costs from fines and litigation while improving investment banking performance.
Barclays reported profits of 3 billion pounds for the first six months of the year, and said it would increase its interim dividend payment by 20% to 3 pence per share in a sign of confidence in its ability to improve returns.
Barclays also said it expected full year costs to come in at less than 13.6 billion pounds, below the minimum threshold it previously said it was targeting for 2019.
The British lender reported a pretax profit of 1.584 billion pounds for the April-June quarter, down from 1.9 billion pounds a year ago and in line with the 1.58 billion pounds average of analysts' forecasts.
(Reporting By Lawrence White, editing by Sinead Cruise)
