Barclays beats expectations but suspends buybacks after U.S. trading blunder

LONDON — Barclays on Thursday said it had suspended its planned share buyback program on the back of a costly trading error in the U.S.

It comes as it reported expectation-beating profit for the first quarter, as strong investment banking performance helped drive income growth.

The British bank announced last month that it had sold $15.2 billion more in U.S. investment products — known as “structured notes” — than it was permitted to. Barclays said Thursday that it had postponed its share buyback program indefinitely and set aside a provision of £540 million as a result of the issue,…