State-owned Dutch bank ABN Amro is to cut up to 1,000 jobs in its retail division by 2018, booking a provision of €50-€75 million in the next quarter as it reported a 40 per cent increase in underlying net profit.
Underlying net profit hit €450 million, helped by an improving housing market, though reported profit fell slightly from €390 million to €383 million as a result of a one-off levy imposed by the Dutch government to help pay for the nationalisation of the bank SNS Reaal.
"The Dutch economy remained on a modest growth path in Q3 and the housing market continued its upward trend as well," said CEO Gerrit Zalm. The results represent a third quarter of underlying profit growth. Zalm has said it would take three quarters of such solid performance for him to recommend to the government that it was time to re-privatise the bank.
Net interest income was up 15 per cent at €1.5 billion, while operating income rose 7 per cent to €2 billion. Impairment charges due to bad loans fell 17 percent €287 million. The bank said the job losses would come at its retail division, and would result from a consolidation of its branch network and investment in digital customer-facing technology.
Bloomberg
