Germany's Commerzbank has offloaded EUR 3.1bn ($3.5bn) of ship finance loans in a year as its "bad bank" returned to profit.
The continued run-down of the book means the maritime portfolio stood at EUR 1.1bn at the end of the third quarter, against EUR 4.2bn a year ago.
The third quarter risk result (loan loss provisions) was down at EUR 134m from EUR 168m year-on-year.
This all boosted the operating profit for the asset and capital recovery (ACR) segment to EUR 90m for the first nine months, against a loss of EUR 210m in 2017.
The result was also aided by the introduction of the IFRS 9 accounting standards.
The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio remained very low, at 0.9%.
Group net profit in the third quarter came in at EUR 218m, against EUR 467m in 2017.
"The environment remains challenging and although we have made a lot of progress, we still have some work to do,” said chairman Martin Zielke.
CFO Stephan Engels added: “We have significantly improved the quality of our earnings compared to last year. Our capital ratio and our leverage ratio are stable on a good level.
"Our outlook for the full year remains unchanged.”
