Barclays has warned that the coronavirus pandemic could cost the bank about £2.1 billion, largely due to customers being unable to repay their loans. The firm said it was setting the money aside to cover its "initial estimates" of the impact of the virus. The impairment charge meant its profits for the first three months of 2020 dived 38 percent to £913 million. The latest warning by Barclays comes a day after rival lender, HSBC, reported a 50 percent fall in profits linked to the pandemic. HSBC had forecast that bad loans would rise to 3 billion dollars due to customers not being able to repay them during the crisis. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices