Dow Jones Newswires: ABN AMRO profit falls as bank announces plan to strengthen Financial-Crime Detection

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ABN AMRO Bank NV on Wednesday reported a 24% fall in net profit for the third quarter and said it has refined a plan to strengthen financial-crime detection, but that further action is needed to ensure full compliance.

The lender ABN, +0.64%   said the timing of investigation by the Dutch public prosecutor and the outcome are uncertain, and that it is cooperating fully.

Last month ABN AMRO said it was being investigated by the Dutch authorities in relation to requirements under an act on the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism. It said at the time that the board would cooperate fully with the investigation, but no further details on the probe were provided.

The Dutch lender made a net profit for the quarter of 558 million euros ($614.5 million) compared with EUR738 million in the year-earlier period. Net interest income rose slightly to EUR1.63 billion compared with EUR1.62 billion for the third quarter of 2018.

Operating income fell to EUR854 million from EUR1.09 billion, ABN AMRO said.

The lender’s fully-loaded CET1 ratio–a measure of a bank’s financial strength–stood at 18.2% compared with 18.6% at Sept. 30, 2018 and 18% at June 30, 2019.