ABN Amro Q1 earnings beat forecasts with negligible bad loans

Amsterdam

ABN Amro beat first-quarter expectations helped by a 99 per cent fall in bad loan impairments, an anomaly even given a robust Dutch economy, the bank said on Wednesday.

The bank, which does more than 80 per cent of its business in the Netherlands, reported underlying profit of 475 million euros (S$741 million), down from 543 million a year earlier. That beat the 423 million euros expected by analysts polled for Reuters.