AFP, The Hague :
Dutch bank ING, the country’s biggest lender, said profits slumped in the first quarter due to “significantly higher” regulatory costs.
It said net profits were down 29 percent at 1.26 billion euros ($1.44 billion), while total underlying income was off 5.7 percent at 4.09 billion euros.
Analysts interviewed by Bloomberg had predicted a net profit of 1.24 billion euros.
Regulatory costs, which include banking taxes and deposits with the European Single Resolution Mechanism for the resolution of banking crises, increased by 185 percent to 496 million euros.
“The regulatory expenses recorded in the first quarter of 2016 are already more than half of the estimated 960 million euros expected for the full year”, it said in a statement.
The group also suffered a fall in its financial markets division, reflecting a drop in activity in the sector.
ING was bailed out to the tune of 10 billion euros in 2008 after the global financial crisis struck, but the European Commission obliged it to exit the insurance business.
In March last year, the bank sold off the last stake it held in its former US insurance unit Voya.
