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21 February 2006 By Mike Verdin

Most other bits of the group are doing well. The investment bank and wealth management are growing fast. The UK is the weak spot. Barclays is trying to sharpen things up at home. But it’s work in progress. And that work may be hampered by a weakening credit cycle.

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Barclays said that 2005 earnings rose by 16.4% to £3.8bn on revenues up 23% to £17.3bn.

In UK banking, pretax profits rose by 8.4% to £2.5bn on revenues up 6.8% at £6.0bn. The division's costtoincome ratio fell by three percentage points to 54%, beating a target of a two percentage point improvement.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm, grew revenues by 27% to £4.3bn and pretax profits by 25% to nearly £1.3bn. Barclays Global Investors, the asset management business, raised pretax profits by 61% to £542m and revenues by 48% to £540m.

At Barclaycard, revenues grew by 14.7% to £2.8bn. Pretax profits fell by 18.5% to £690m. The group's international arm more than doubled revenues and pretax profits, including the first contribution from Absa, the South African bank.

Barclays said that while the UK economy would show reasonable growth in 2006, the credit environment in the consumer sector is likely to remain challenging. The bank added: The healthy global economy should provide a positive backdrop for all our businesses this year.

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