ABN AMRO’s private banking arm reported today a net profit of €125 million ($168 million) in the first nine months of 2013, about doubling from last year at €64 million.

The increase was driven mainly by lower impairments in the international business, as well as higher management fees from increased assets under management, the Netherlands-headquartered firm said in a statement.

Assets under management within private banking rose by €4 billion in the first nine months of 2013 to €167 billion, mainly as the result of market performance, said.

At the overall group level, the bank said net profit, excluding special items, amounted to €289 million and increased by 31 per cent compared with Q2 due to lower impairments in commercial and merchant banking. Net profit over the first nine months increased marginally to €1.207 billion, helped by a number of large releases on loan impairments.

The core Tier 1 ratio improved to 13.7 per cent.