KBC Bank Ireland has today released its third quarter financial results revealing a year to date profit of €175.7m.

As major banks abandon the diamond-trading world, one new lender is preparing to jump in.

The chief executive of KBC Ireland said that the road is probably narrowing for the prospects of further reductions in home loans.

KBC Bank Ireland is attracting new business with its low mortgage rates and will compete with any new mortgage entrants on price, its chief executive has vowed.

KBC Group, Belgium’s biggest bank by market value, pumped €130m into its Irish unit last month, bringing the bailout bill to about €1.38bn, as the lender continues to grapple with losses following the property crash.

KBC Bank Ireland reported a loss of €14m for the third quarter of the year compared with a €51m loss for the same period last year.

KBC Ireland remains confident of turning a profit by 2016 despite reporting a second-quarter loss of €34m after tax and impairment costs yesterday.

KBC Bank Ireland has reported a loss (after tax and impairment costs) of €34m for the second quarter of this year.

KBC Bank Ireland reported a loss of €17.1m after tax and impairment costs for Q1 2014, compared to a loss of €46.4m for the same period in 2013, it was announced today.

KBC Ireland made a loss of €864m last year as it ramped up loan impairments over the fourth quarter.

KBC Ireland narrowed its losses over the second quarter of the year as the impairment charge for loan losses fell by almost a third compared with the same period in 2012.

KBC Ireland made an after-tax loss of €77m for the first three months of the year, compared with a €148m loss for the same period last year. Loan loss provisions for the quarter were €99m compared with €195m for the first three months of 2012.

AIB would have made another €850m at current market value if it had been able to hold off selling its 70% majority shareholding in Poland’s Bank Zachodni until now.

Belgian-owned KBC Bank reported losses after tax and impairments of €306m for 2012, which is up from €269m the previous year, although the bank says the mortgage arrears problem is stabilising.

Two foreign-owned Irish banks have reported losses between them of over €1bn during 2011, according to accounts released yesterday by KBC and NIB banks.

KBC Bank Ireland has announced that it is to increase its standard variable mortgage rate by 0.2%.

THE Irish division of Belgian banking group KBC contributed profits of €42 million in the first half of this year and continues to trade strongly, despite reports suggesting that the operation has been a “cause for concern” at group headquarters in Brussels.

PROFITS at IIB Bank grew by 9% in 2002 to €57.8m, as the company’s home loan business grew to take 10% of the new mortgage market in Ireland.