ING Group NV reported fourth-quarter profits on Wednesday of $586.5 million, $0.14 per share, compared with $1.4 billion in the third quarter, and a loss of $964.4 million in the same quarter last year. For the full year, net profits rose to $5.3 billion from $1.3 billion in 2009.
Income fell short of expectations from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, who estimated income of $727.4 million for the bank.
“ING made good progress in 2010 as we prepare to create strong stand-alone companies for banking and insurance,” said Jan Hommen, CEO of ING Group, said in a statement.
"The Bank finished the year with another strong quarter, posting an underlying profit before tax of [$2.0 billion], almost on par with the very strong third quarter, despite seasonally lower Financial Markets results and a small up-tick in loan loss provisions after three quarters of declines," Hommen added.
The company will not pay a dividend over 2010 in light of "the financial environment, regulatory requirements and priority to repay Dutch State."
Pre-tax profits for the fourth quarter totaled $2.0 billion and the net interest margin increased 6 bps to 1.47% on healthy savings and lending margins. After falling for three quarters, risk costs increased 51 bps to $562.6 million.
The cost/income ratio for the fourth quarter improved to 57.2% from 74.5% in 2009. For the full year, the cost/income ratio improved to 56% from 68.7%.