ABN AMRO swings to loss on impairments

ABN AMRO Bank NV (ABN.AE) on Wednesday reported a swing to net loss for the first quarter of the year after booking a large impairment charge due to Covid-19, oil prices and market developments.

The Dutch lender made a net loss for the quarter of 395 million euros ($427.1 million) compared with a profit EUR478 million in the year-earlier period and a consensus loss of EUR242.9 million, taken from FactSet and based on three analysts’ estimates.

ABN AMRO booked an impairment charge in the period of EUR1.11 billion compared with EUR102 million for the first quarter in 2019.

Net interest income fell to EUR1.53 billion compared with EUR1.57 billion for the first quarter of 2019 and a forecast of EUR1.55 billion, taken from FactSet and based on five analysts’ forecasts.

The lender’s fully loaded CET1 ratio–a measure of a bank’s financial strength–stood at 17.3% compared with 18% at March 31, 2019 and 18.1% at Dec. 31, 2019.

ABN AMRO said on March 31, 2020 that the board wouldn’t pay a first interim dividend for the year in August, and was postponing the payment of its 2019 final dividend following the recommendation of the European Central Bank.

It plans to keep the 0.68 European cents dividend for 2019 untouched but said the timing of its payment will be conditional upon the health crisis being resolved.