Barclays has gone to shareholders to raise £5.8bn after the bank revealed it faced a capital shortfall of £12.8bn to hit a new Bank of England-imposed safety buffer. In a statement this morning, the bank said it would launch a deeply discounted rights issue to help close the gap between its current so-called leverage ratio and the one being imposed on British banks by regulators. The announcement came as Barclays unveiled its results for the first half of the year, which revealed larger than expected provisions against the cost of compensating customers mis-sold payment protection insurance and interest rate hedging products. The bank set aside £1.35bn against further PPI claims, taking its total compensation fund to just under £4bn, and a further £650m for interest rate swap redress, increasing its provision to £1.5bn Barclays' statutory pre-tax profits for the first six months of 2103 increased by £806m yearon-year to £1.67bn, while its adjusted profits, which strip out the mis-selling provisions, as well as changes in the value of the lender's own debt, fell by 17pc to £3.6bn. The rights issue will allow existing investors to buy one new share for every four they currently own at a price of 185p, a discount of 40pc to they bank's closing share price yesterday. Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays, said the bank had taken the decision to raise they money after "careful consideration of the options". "The Board and I are aware of the implications of a rights issue for shareholders. We hope to balance this with reduced uncertainty in the outlook for Barclays and with enhancement of our dividend payout from 2014," said Mr Jenkins. More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10210317/Barclays-calls-on-investors-for-5.8bn-to-help-fill-12.8bn-capital-hole.html