Barclays, Britain's third-biggest bank, said on Thursday that first quarter profits fell after suffering a 1.0 billion-pound (1.25 billion-euro, 1.95 billion-dollar) hit from the global credit crunch.
"Following tougher capital markets trading conditions in March, group profit for the first quarter was below that of the very strong prior year period," Barclays said in a trading update.
"There were net losses of 1.0 billion pounds (at investment arm Barclays Capital) relating to credit market turbulence," it said.
The news sent Barclays' share price tumbling 2.63 percent to 416 pence on London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares, which was up by about half a percentage point in afternoon deals.
Barclays Capital remained profitable during the first three months of the year despite the fresh credit-crunch loss, the group added.
The collapse in the US subprime or high-risk home loan market sparked an ongoing global credit squeeze last August as banks became more and more reluctant to lend to one another.
Many major banks have suffered massive losses due to their exposure to securities that were effectively bets on higher-risk American homebuyers repaying their mortgages.
Barclays finance director Chris Lucas said Thursday that the bank was keeping all options open regarding possible measures to boost its capital, including an issue of new shares.
"We're active managers of capital and we have a range of optionsm," Lucas told reporters after the trading update.
"We're explicitly keeping all of them open today ... We're not going to rule in, or rule out any option."
Britain's biggest mortgage lender HBOS said last month that it would ask shareholders for 7.9 billion dollars to strengthen its balance sheet after more heavy credit-crunch writedowns.
On Wednesday, shareholders at Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland voted in favour of a record-breaking new share issue to raise 12 billion pounds (15 billion euros, 24 billion dollars) from shareholders.
RBS had unveiled the country's biggest-ever issuing of new shares last month after huge subprime-related writedowns and soaring costs related to its blockbuster takeover of ABN Amro.
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