Barclays report exposes £1.8bn drop in profits as figures exposed early

Barclays boss Antony Jenkins faces controversy over awarding higher bonuses to staff despite a fall in profits. Photograph: Stephen Chernin/AFP/Getty Images

Antony Jenkins, the boss of Barclays, is expected to set out eight new benchmarks on Tuesday by which the bank's future performance will be measured as he faces controversy over awarding bonuses to staff despite a fall in profits.

In a move which confused the City on Monday, the bank released figures 24 hours earlier than expected showing a reduction in underlying profits to £5.2bn from £7bn. But on a statutory basis the profits will rise from £246m – a figure hit in 2012 by an accounting requirement to include the cost of buying back its debt - to £2.9bn.

His presentation of the figures will go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday when analysts are forecasting a scaling back of the investment bank – the powerhouse of the bank under his predecessor Bob Diamond – as it seeks to reduce costs and cut back on its use of expensive capital.

He is likely to face questions about the theft of confidential customer files- 2,000 names, addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers and details of personal finances – which is now the subject of regulatory scrutiny. The theft of the information only emerged on the weekend and is said to be part of the now defunct Barclays Financial Planning business.

The curt statement to the stock market outlining the profit numbers appears to have been sparked by forecasts by Morgan Stanley in research published last week but reported by the Financial Times on Monday.

In the research note, the Morgan Stanley analysts also predict that Jenkins will scale back the bank's balance sheet further by £150bn. This would compare to the £65bn to £80bn snip announced at the time of the £5.8bn cash call in the summer caused by a demand from the Bank of England that it reduce the risks or bolster its capital position.

At the time of the rights issue Jenkins had to admit some of his promises to shareholders would no longer be achieved on schedule but also promised to pay out between 40% and 50% of its profits as dividends from 2014 – a year earlier than planned.

Ian Gordon, analyst at Investec, said the figures released by Barclays were a "small miss" on the consensus forecast for £5.4bn and that he assumed the shortfall came from the investment banking arm.

Jenkins, who was promoted from running the retail bank in the wake of the £290m fine for rigging the Libor rate that forced changes at the top of the bank, has set out to turn Barclays into the "go to" bank.

He will set out eight commitments in an attempt repair its reputation, only two of which are related to financial performance. One of the benchmarks will target the promotion of women to executive roles in the bank.

When he edited the BBC's Today Programme on new year's eve it emerged that one of his eight commitments would be to make the bank more trustworthy among its customers by 2018.

The bank's shares rose 3.3p to 275p after the profit figures were released.