said yesterday that its net profit rose by 12 per cent year-on-year to €693 million ($811 million).
The bank said wealth management client assets were reduced by market volatility. The decline was “partly seasonal, similar to last year, and mainly caused by annual tax payments, but was less strong due to commercial actions,” it said.
Following its purchase of Germany-based Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe in 2024, the bank said yesterday that it was “on track” in its integration and has recorded the restructuring impact in the first quarter-figures.
The number of full-time equivalent (FTEs) employees fell by 528 in the first quarter, with a moderation in the pace of reductions expected for the remainder of the year, the bank’s CEO, Marguerite Bérard (pictured below), said. “The total FTE decrease since end-2024 now stands at approximately 40 per cent of our target for 2028. As a result, expenses, excluding incidentals, fell to just below the level of the same period last year, when Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe (HAL) was not yet included in our figures,” she added.
Marguerite Bérard
Across the whole banking group, costs fell further and ABN AMRO said it has lowered its cost guidance for the full year to about €5.5 billion.
The Common Equity Tier 1 ratio – a standard international measure of a bank’s capital shock absorber – has risen to 15.5 per cent.
Artificial intelligence
Bérard said the bank continues to “embed artificial intelligence (AI) into how we work,” saying that in the first quarter, it expanded its AI-powered Advisor Assist to new advisor groups and to its primary communication channel, video banking.
“The tool’s summarisation capability helps client advisors reduce the time spent after each call by up to 50 per cent. Across the bank, AI adoption continues to rise, with 85 per cent of employees using AI in the first quarter,” Bérard said.