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LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - Barclays reported a first quarter profit that exceeded expectations on Thursday, as a strong performance from its consumer banking business offset pressure on key other business lines.
The British bank reported pretax profit of 2.6 billion pounds ($3.25 billion), above the average analyst forecast of 2.2 billion pounds as compiled by the bank, and higher than the 2.2 billion pounds it reported in the same period a year ago.
Income at the lender's consumer, cards and payments division rose 47% to 1.3 billion pounds, thanks to rising credit card balances driven partly by its acquisition of a portfolio from retailer Gap last year.
Investment banking, a source of strength in recent quarters, was more mixed, with income from the global markets trading business sliding 8% and fees from advising on corporate deals also down 7%.
($1 = 0.8012 pounds) (Reporting By Lawrence White and Iain Withers, editing by Sinead Cruise)
