LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - British bank Barclays said it was confident it would cut annual costs by 1.7 billionpounds ($2.6 billion) under a restructuring plan unveiled by itsnew chief executive in February.
"It's early days but we've put an enormous amount ofactivity in place and I'm pleased with the progress we've made.We remain committed to the numbers we communicated in February,"CEO Antony Jenkins told reporters on a conference call.
He was speaking after Barclays said first-quarter profitfell a quarter from a year ago due to a 514 million pound chargefor restructuring the business.