First-quarter profits rose from the previous three months but fell a touch on the year.

ABN AMRO today reported a first-quarter, 2018 profit of €595 million ($711.5 million), down 3 per cent from a year earlier but up 10 per cent from the previous quarter. 

The Netherlands-headquartered bank, which refocused its private banking business on home European markets after spinning off its Asian wealth arm in late 2016, said operating income for the quarter rose 4 per cent year-on-year to €2.329 billion; operating costs were flat on the year at €1.348 billion.

The group had a cost-income ratio of 57.9 per cent, narrowing from a year ago, when it was 60.2 per cent. At the end of the quarter it had a fully-loaded CET1 ratio, a common measure of a bank’s capital strength, of 17.5 per cent, ABN AMRO said in a statement.

The European firm has been through an extensive restructuring process, selling its private banking operations in Asia and the Middle East to Liechtenstein-headquartered LGT. ABN AMRO had been bailed out by the Dutch state amid the 2008 financial crisis.

"The underlying cost trend in Q1 continues to benefit from cost savings. Impairments were high this quarter due to provisions for specialised loans in a few specific sectors. Impairment provisions for offshore service and offshore shipping clients were elevated as recovery is still fragile in these sectors," Kees van Dijkhuizen, chief executive, said.