The news come less than a fortnight after the rushed resignation of chief executive Martin Taylor.

Shortly after his departure, the deputy chairman of Barclays, Andrew Large, also resigned from his executive responsibilities.

Barclays is looking for new management at the top

Barclays said its bad debt provisions for the second half of the business year were likely to be higher than in the first half.

It said costs for the whole of 1998 were expected to increase by around 5.5% from £4.6bn in the previous year.

The company's investment arm Barclays Capital, also lost £75m in July and August.

However Barclays said the losses had been partially offset by good performances in other areas including interest rate derivatives and foreign exchange.

The company said: "Difficult market conditions continued in September and October, although there has been an improvement in trading since then."