Barclays buyback on hold due to blunder

STORY: Barclays has put its share buyback plans on hold thanks to a trading blunder.

U.S. regulators are looking into the British bank after it disclosed the mistake in March.

Barclays said it wrongly went beyond the U.S. limit on sales of structured products.

That led to a loss and potential restatement of last year's accounts filed with U.S. authorities.

The bank estimated total provision for the error was around $675 million.

The lender said Thursday (April 28) it was still committed to the share buyback program and would launch it as soon as possible

Barclays previously aimed to start the buyback - valued at just over $1.2 billion - in the second quarter.

The fallout from the mistake is an early test for chief executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan, who took over from Jes Staley in November.

Barclays posted a profit before tax for the three months ended March of about $2.75 billion.

That was above analyst forecasts, but just below the amount it booked a year earlier.