MW Barclays takes a victory lap over lack of First Brands exposure. But it did get burned on Tricolor.

By Steve Goldstein

C. S. Venkatakrishnan, CEO of Barclays, said the bank avoided exposure to First Brands but was hit by Tricolor.

Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan, or Venkat as he's known, said the bank wasn't stuck with exposure to fallen auto-parts company First Brands because of its own due diligence.

"We did not have First Brands," he said on a call with analysts, according to a FactSet-compiled transcript. "We were approached a couple of times and we said no. And we said no because our credit officers felt that there was not enough data information to support the financial projections they made. That's how credit selection is supposed to work."

Auto dealership Tricolor, however, was a stain on Barclays's bottom line to the tune of GBP110 million ($147 million) in the third quarter. "I'm obviously disappointed that we had Tricolor," he said. "The fact that it was fraud as an excuse, but we, you know, we looked at what lessons we can learn from that and applied it across our portfolio."

Barclays (UK:BARC) $(BCS)$ reported a slightly weaker-than-expected pretax profit of GBP2.1 billion as it said it would do stock buybacks quarterly, starting with a GBP500 million repurchase plan. Barclays said it would establish new 2028 goals in its fourth-quarter report. Barclays shares rose 5% in afternoon London trade.

Venkat said he doesn't distinguish between private credit, which is worrying regulators and investors, and other lending.

"First of all, I view credit as credit as credit," he said. Private credit is originated outside of banks and outside of public debt markets, but the bank still has to make the same reviews over client selection, factor concentration and name concentration apply, as well as perform continuous monitoring.

"Now, fraud can be isolated bad actors, or it could be economic conditions that increase the propensity towards bad acting, if you like," he said.

"I think what these two instances show is that, you know, we will likely be monitoring our portfolios more carefully, particularly understanding the impact of changed economic conditions on companies, and looking closely at the strengthening independence of financial controls."

Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey, at a House of Lords hearing on Tuesday, said it was important to take First Brands and Tricolor seriously, though he wasn't sure whether they were one-off issues or a case of the canary in a coal mine.

"Are they telling us something more fundamental about the private finance and private assets sector?" he asked.

-Steve Goldstein

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October 22, 2025 08:26 ET (12:26 GMT)

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