ABN AMRO's earnings declined for the first quarter, thanks to bad loans in offshore and other sectors.
The Europe-listed bank posted net income of EUR 595m ($712.6m), down from EUR 615m a year earlier.
Impairment charges on loans and other receivables skyrocketed 230% to EUR 208m, due to provisions for specialised loans in a "few specific sectors," the Amsterdam-based bank said.
"Impairment charges for offshore service and offshore shipping clients were elevated as recovery is still fragile in these sectors," chief executive Kees van Dijkhuizen said.
Expenses remained flat at EUR 1.35bn against a 4% uptick in operating income to EUR 2.33bn for the quarter. Cost-income ratio improved to 60.2% from 50.7%.
"We saw a solid start to the year ... reflecting a strong increase in our operating result, offset by high impairments," van Dijkhuizen said.
The bank said net income remained strong, in part from loan growth in Dutch SME (small medium enterprise) loans and corporate loans.
Recent shipping sector loans include up to $120.6m with SEB to Scorpio Tankers.
'On track' for 2020
He said the bank expects to achieve its strategic priorities and financial targets for 2020, having reached over half of its EUR 900m costs savings goal in the past 18 months.
"We are confident in our current approach where we continuously phase in further modernisations and we do not intend to initiate a new core banking replacement," he said.
