ING 1Q Profit Fell on Increased Costs, Loan Provisions

By Adam Clark

ING Groep NV (INGA.AE) said Thursday that its first-quarter profit fell after higher costs and provisions for bad loans outweighed a rise in income.

The Dutch lender made a net profit of 1.12 billion euros ($1.26 billion) for the quarter, down 8.7% from the year-earlier period. Underlying pretax profit fell 6.2% to EUR1.58 billion.

Chief Executive Ralph Hamers said ING's profit was hit by an increase in loan risk and pressure from low interest rates across the eurozone.

The bank's underlying income rose 2.7% to EUR4.58 billion.

ING generated EUR8.7 billion in net core lending growth and its interest margin remained stable at 1.54%.

ING's quarterly return on equity stood at 9.0%, or 11.0% on a four-quarter rolling average. Its common equity Tier 1 ratio --a key measure of balance sheet strength-- improved to 14.7% as of March 31 from 14.5% at the end of 2018.

ING didn't comment on recent reports that it made an informal approach about acquiring German lender Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE).

Write to Adam Clark at [e-mail]; @AdamDowJones

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 02, 2019 01:31 ET (05:31 GMT)

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