ACCBank pre-tax profit falls to €43m

PRE-TAX profit at ACCBank fell 36% to €43 million last year.

The fall is a result of one-off costs to the bank which include over €3m invested in IT improvements and €3m costs for severance packages, which was as the result of the closure of 10 units last year.

The bank also in 2006 released an extra €15m into its profit and loss account which was set aside for “specific provisions”.

In 2001, the year Dutch-owned Rabobank offered to buy ACCBank from the State for €165m, the bank had made a loss of €21.8m for 2000.

ACCBank also said total income increased by 5% last year to over just €160m. This was “mainly as a result of additional interest income generated from the bank’s increased loan book”.

Total loans and advances to customers increased by €215m to €6.75b last year.

Within this overall increase, commercial loans grew by 10% to represent 63% of total customer loans.

The bank said this increase reflects its “continued success in changing its focus to business banking activities”.

ACCBank chief executive Rob Hartog said that the bank continued to make progress in implementing its strategy, improving its balance sheet and increasing the quality of its loan book last year.

“The Rabobank brand continues to grow in strength in Ireland, providing us with a major opportunity to increase our footprint in the SME and agricultural sectors over the months and years ahead,” he said.

The impairment charge for last year was €13m “reflecting a more normal charge to the income statement following the release of some specific provisions during 2006.” It added fee income for last year was at a similar level to 2006.

Since it was taken over by Rabo in 2002 the bank said it has been in the process of changing the focus of its strategy to concentrate on the provision of banking services to the small and medium sized business and agricultural sectors as well as the provision of wealth management services.