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Profit increase for major Dutch banks in 2015

Xinhua, February 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Following the positive results of ABN Amro and ING, the third major Dutch bank Rabobank also achieved a significant rise of profit in 2015, Rabobank announced on Thursday.

In 2015 Rabobank posted a net profit of 2.214 billion euros (about 2.46 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 20 percent compared to the full year 2014, which was 1.842 billion euros.

"The results for 2015 illustrate our financial strength and solidity," Wiebe Draijer, chairman of the executive board, said in a press release.

The recovering Dutch economy contributed to a sharp decrease in Rabobank's loan impairment charges, with the total of loan impairment charges going down by 1.600 billion euros to 1.033 billion euros by the end of 2015 (-61 percent).

Last year in December Rabobank made known a cut of 9,000 jobs from 2016 to 2018, as part of a new strategy, on top of reorganizations that have been deployed since 2013, at the cost of 10,000 jobs.

"The financial results for 2015 provide us with a good foundation from which to make a great success of the chosen approach," Draijer said.

On Wednesday ABN Amro also published good figures.

ABN Amro had an underlying net profit for the full year 2015 of 1.924 billion euros, up 24 percent compared with 2014, when it was 1.551 billion euros. Loan impairments in 2015, of 505 million euros, more than halved compared with 2014.

"2015 was a good year for the bank," ABN Amro CEO Gerrit Zalm reacted in a press release, saying "The year-on-year improvement was achieved on revenues, which went up on the back of a further repricing of the loan portfolio and higher fee income."

Earlier this month ING had positive notes to tell as well. ING's underlying net profit went up from 3.424 billion euros in 2014 to 4.219 billion euros in 2015, a growth of 23.2 percent.

"This improvement was primarily driven by higher interest results on the back of strong lending growth and lower risk costs, and despite a substantial increase in regulatory costs," said Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group. (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars) Endit