BANKING giant Barclays today revealed a £1.82 billion profits haul for the first three months of 2010 amid "signs of economic recovery".

The result marks a 90% leap on pre-tax profits seen a year earlier, on an underlying basis and with one-off items stripped out.

Barclays - which also faces shareholders today at its annual general meeting - continued to reap the benefits of a beefed up investment banking unit, with Barclays Capital seeing a 62% surge in first quarter profits to £1.5 billion.

Barclays revealed it has set aside around £1.4 billion in pay and benefits to staff within its investment banking unit from the first quarter - at around 38% to 39% of income, in line with 2009 levels.

The bank has been under increasing fire over bonus payments ahead of today’s investor meeting.

Shareholder advisory body Pirc warned that rewards on offer to Barclays senior bosses were "potentially excessive" and has recommended shareholders vote against the bank’s remuneration plan.

Barclays stressed today that cash set aside for its investment banking team would only be confirmed after the year-end.

It also sought to assure over exposure to debt-laden Greece today, saying that it would be "minimal".

The group said exposure to Greek government bonds was less than £200 million, while it only has a small exposure to retail and wholesale banking in the country.

But shares in Barclays fell 4%, with analysts citing some worries over a drop in top line income at BarCap.

While profits in the BarCap business - headed by Barclays president Bob Diamond - saw profits rise by nearly two thirds, income was down year-on-year on a reported basis as it came up against tough comparatives from early 2009 when markets began to recover sharply.

However, bad debt charges plunged by 75% in BarCap thanks to better equity market conditions.

Barclays also reported a 35% drop year-on-year in bad debts across the wider business to £1.51 billion thanks to more stable markets and with borrowers struggling less.

Pre-tax profits at its UK retail arm rose 20% to £238 million, although this included a £71 million boost from its acquisition of Standard Life Bank, completed earlier this year.

Retail banking income continues to be hit, down 3% as margins suffer due to ongoing record low interest rates in the UK.

But it said charges for debts turned sour decreased year-on-year in the UK, with the number of borrowers also falling behind on their mortgage repayments stabilising further.

John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, said: "The improvement that we have seen in impairment reflects the signs of economic recovery now evident in many of the markets in which we operate."