German lender Commerzbank shed EUR 2.2bn ($2.7bn) of shipping loans during 2017.
The bank said its asset and capital recovery (ACR) ship finance portfolio stood at EUR 2.6bn at the end of the year, from EUR 4.8bn previously.
Loan loss provisions stood at EUR 781m for 2017, down from EUR 900m in 2016.
It said: "The bank’s healthy risk profile is reflected in the further reduced, very low non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of 1.3%."
ACR revenues before loan loss provisions fell to EUR 166m in 2017, from EUR 213m a year ago.
Provisions were reduced over the same period to EUR 336m, against EUR 599m, while the operating loss improved to EUR 269m, versus EUR 515m.
Fourth quarter provisions down
Overall loan loss provisions stood at EUR 251m in the fourth quarter, from EUR 290m in 2016.
They were booked primarily for an individual exposure in the corporate clients portfolio and for the ship finance book.
Last year, fellow German bank Berenberg bought a "middle-three-digit" loan portfolio from Commerzbank. Sources cited by Reuters put the value at more than EUR 300m.
The group booked restructuring expenses of more than EUR 800m in 2017, but staff costs dropped after redundancies.
