The Netherlands-based bank reported a dramatic improvement in its profit and an equally sharp fall in impairment charges.

Netherlands-based ABN AMRO yesterday reported a profit of €552 million ($597 million) in the final three months of last year, surging from €54 million a year ago, while full-year 2021 profit rose to €1.234 billion, recovering from a loss of €45 million.

Impairment charges fell by 45 per cent in Q4 2021 from a year ago, and slumped by 46 per cent for the whole of 2021 as the COVID-19 position, among other forces, improved over the year.

Operating income in Q4 rose by 27 per cent on a year earlier to €2.284 billion, while operating costs rose just 2 per cent to €1.433 billion, the bank said in a statement.

The cost/income ratio narrowed sharply to 62.8 per cent at the end of 2021 from 77.8 per cent a year earlier. The bank’s fully-loaded Common Equity Tier 1 ratio – a standard international measure of a bank’s capital buffer – fell slightly to 16.3 per cent from 17.7 per cent. 

ABN AMRO chief executive Robert Swaak, commenting on the results, said the wind-down of the corporate and investment bank non-core portfolio – part of a move to cut risk exposures – has been “largely completed” well ahead of schedule.

The bank proposed a final dividend equivalent to €0.61 per share. In addition, it announced a share buyback of €500 million.