Barclays has raised the provision that it has set aside to deal with potential settlements related to currency rigging allegations to £1.25bn. The bank ended the year with an after-tax loss of £174m.

£750m was added to its fund to deal with legal issues during the fourth quarter of 2014. Barclays pulled out of settlement talks with US and UK regulators regarding the alleged currency rigging in November of last year.

Today's results came with a string of legal warnings - allegations regarding the manipulation of the £3.5th currency market is just one of the issues that Barclays has to deal with.

The bank also needs to provide for a compensation programme for customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

Barclays has introduced a number of cost saving measures - it cut 14,000 jobs and closed a net 72 branches.

The bank's bonus pool also fell by 22 percent to £1.86bn.

Adjusted profits did increase by 12 percent to £5.5bn. Chief executive Antony Jenkins says that, "Barclays today is a stronger business, with better prospects, than at any time since the financial crisis."

He added that the bank hopes to make "significant progress" dealing with its outstanding legal issues during 2015.