ING Groep NV, one of Europe’s largest banking and insurance groups, reported a hefty loss for the fourth quarter yesterday, reflecting a mixed operating performance and a big charge related to an earlier bailout.
ING’s net loss was 712 million euros (US$980 million), far less than the 3.71 billion euros the company lost in the same period a year ago at the height of the financial crisis.
This quarter’s figures included a one-time payment to the Dutch state of 930 million euros. That was demanded by the EU Commission’s competition authority after it ruled a bailout package given to ING by the Netherlands was too generous.
At the company’s operations, it made 132 million euros in profit at its banking division, mostly because of a highly profitable retail division, but its corporate and real estate divisions continued to lose money.
In addition, provisions against bad loans rose by 686 million euros. A year ago the banking division lost 1.84 billion euros.
“The bank showed a strong commercial performance, supported by improved interest margins, higher results from financial markets and cost reduction,” chief executive Jan Hommen said in a statement.
The company has cut 7.9 percent of staff over the past year and now employs 107,173 people.
Under pressure from the EU, ING is planning to split its banking and insurance arms by 2012.
Meanwhile, French bank BNP Paribas posted its fourth straight quarterly profit, but said earnings were still below pre-crisis levels.
The eurozone’s largest banking group said yesterday that it earned a net profit of 1.37 billion euros (US$1.87 billion) after losing an identical amount a year earlier. Profits increased 4.6 percent from the third quarter.
In a statement, CEO Baudouin Prot pleaded in favor of BNP Paribas’ business model, which combines retail banking with investment banking.
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