Barclays Plc chief Antony Jenkins has threatened more cuts to its underperforming investment bank after a £750 million charge by the British bank provided fresh evidence of the costs of past misdemeanours by its traders.

Barclays last year cut costs, improved its capital strength and shed unwanted assets, which Jenkins said justified his decision to accept his first bonus since taking charge three years ago – helping his pay for last year to more than treble to £5.5 million.

But it continues to be dogged by past conduct problems and lacklustre returns in investment banking and Jenkins said on Tuesday he would take a knife once again to the investment bank arm if it does not improve its profitability.

“I’m not a very patient person and every business within the group has to deliver the RoE (return on equity) that we require of it,” Jenkins told reporters. “We won’t hesitate to continue to optimise capital allocated to the investment bank, the cost base and revenues to generate those returns.”

Barclays has abandoned its ambition of being a Wall Street power house

Barclays took a higher-than-expected £750 million charge in the fourth quarter as it prepares to settle allegations its traders manipulated foreign exchange markets.

For the year as a whole it reported an adjusted pretax profit of £5.5 billion, up from a restated £4.9 billion in 2013 and above the average forecast of £5.3 billion.

Including charges, provisions and restructuring costs of £1.2 billion, pretax profit fell 21 per cent to £2.3 billion.

Barclays increased its provision for potential forex fines and settlements to £1.25 billion and Jenkins said behaviour had been “wholly unacceptable” and continued to cast a shadow on the bank.

Barclays also set aside an extra £200 million in the fourth quarter to compensate British customers who were mis-sold insurance products.

Under Jenkins, it has abandoned its ambition of being a Wall Street powerhouse, shrinking its investment bank in favour of a return to its retail roots.

Barclays said its investment bank had a good start to 2015 but 2014 was a year to forget, with pretax profit sliding a third. It cut 2,600 jobs from the business out of 7,000 it has said it will axe, or about a quarter of the unit’s staff.