ACC pretax profits fall 53% to €32.5m

ACC Bank has announced pretax profits of €32.5 million for 2005, a drop of 53 per cent on the previous year's figure.

However, total operating income, the volume of loans to customers and customer deposits all grew last year.

In 2004, ACC Bank made "exceptional" profits of €69.2 million, which it said was largely as a result of a one-off release of general provisions and commissions earned from the sale of leveraged tracker bonds, a product that it did not offer in 2005.

The new IFRS accounting standards were applied for the first time in 2005 in line with accounting policies at ACC Bank's Dutch parent, Rabobank Group.

The 2004 figures have been restated. However, some transitional rules only apply from January 2005, which means the two pretax profit figures cannot be meaningfully compared, the bank said.

Total operating income during 2005 grew to €166.6 million, up 7 per cent, while costs increased by just over 1 per cent. As a result, the cost-income ratio improved, falling from 57.6 per cent in 2004 to 54.6 per cent in 2005.

Loans to customers grew by €753 million to €6.8 billion, while deposits rose 7 per cent to €2.7 billion. Total assets grew by 11 per cent to €9.3 billion.

During 2005, three years after its acquisition by Rabobank, ACC Bank reviewed a significant portion of its loan book, resulting in additional one-off, specific provisions. The bank said it believed this was a prudent move.

ACC Bank's loan book has increased in value from €2.7 billion three years ago to €6.8 billion.

Chief executive Colm Darling said the bank had been successful in its strategy of concentrating on providing banking services to small and medium-sized businesses and agricultural customers.

"Growth over the last number of years has been very significant and we are confident of further development and improvement in the business in the years to come."