NatWest Group Plc got all the bad publicity last week after a political storm over its dealings with a provocative client led its chief executive officer to resign. But UK rival Barclays Plc was a bigger loser in the stock market and is still among the lowest valued major banks in Europe.
Barclays’s second-quarter results last Thursday didn’t paint a much worse picture than UK and European rivals in the areas where investors were most focused: margins on lending and losses on problem loans. But there is one area where it does look weaker than most peers — except for Deutsche Bank AG — and that is returning cash to shareholders.