The European banking group Fortis said it made a first-quarter net profit of €808 million ($1.255 billion) down from €1.167 billion in the same quarter last year, saying it had demonstrated resilient results during tough market conditions. The Dutch-Belgian bank, which operates a private banking arm, said this division made a net Q1 profit of €40 million, a drop of 48 per cent year-on-year. Fortis said its Q1 results last year had been boosted by a new way of measuring assets, a capital gain and release of impairments. Excluding these factors, it said its year-on-year performance was stable. The profit was 24 per cent higher than in Q4, 2007, Fortis said. “Strict cost control measures and new product launches helped to compensate for the impact of the challenging market conditions,” Fortis said in a statement on its results. Within the private banking arm, funds under management fell to €78.7 billion at the end of the first quarter from €82.3 billion at the end of last year, as equity markets fell. The bank reported net inflows of €1.1 billion in the quarter. Across the group as a whole, Fortis said it logged income growth of 17 per cent year-on-year, which was driven by higher income from treasury and financial markets as well as strong underlying growth in net interest income in all banking businesses. It said strict cost controls produced a 2 per cent increase in expenses and an improvement of the efficiency ratio. The bank said its structured credit product assets were worth €43.4 billion at the end of the quarter, a drop of €4.9 billion compared with the end of 2007. It said the drop was explained by exchange rate movements, repayments, and some write-downs. Fortis said it was “well on track” with the integration of ABN Amro, Asset Management, that was transferred to Fortis as of 1 April 2008 following ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, bought by Fortis, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander last year. In April this year, Fortis said its private banking division, Fortis Private Banking, will be led by chief executive Chris Vogelzang, a senior executive at ABN Amro.