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ABN Amro posts profit increase in first quarter

Xinhua, May 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

ABN Amro had a good start of 2015 with profits and revenue figures up in the first quarter of the year, the Dutch bank stated Wednesday.

The underlying net profit of 543 million euros (615 U.S. million dollars) was up 44 percent compared with Q1 of 2014 at 378 million euros. The operating income rose by 9 percent to 2.16 billion euros in the first quarter of 2015, compared to 1.98 billion euros in the same quarter last year.

"The net profit of 543 million euros is our highest level of profitability in the past 16 quarters," Gerrit Zalm, CEO of ABN Amro, said in a press release.

"For the first time in two years, we see the number of loan applications for small enterprises slowly increasing again whilst the level of acceptances has already been higher for the past three quarters," he added.

Zalm also posted an apology. In March this year, ABN Amro formally announced a salary increase of 100,000 euros for six members of the managing board, which triggered a storm of protest from customers and criticism in Dutch media.

One week later, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem decided to postpone the planned IPO of the nationalized bank due to lack of support. After intensive discussions, the executives decided to cancel the salary increase.

"We sincerely regret the increase in fixed salary and the impact it has had on our clients, ABN AMRO and employees, and other stakeholders," Zalm said. "Hence, we cancelled the increase. We understand that it will take time for the public to regain confidence in ABN Amro and we will work hard to restore that confidence by doing our utmost to put our clients' interests first every day." Enditem