FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank said Thursday that its net profit rose strongly last year, as it set aside much less in risk provisions and continued to earn income on Greek debt.
The ECB said in a statement its 2013 bottom-line net profit, after subtracting lower risk provisions, amounted to 1.44 billion euros ($1.9 billion), up from 995 million euros a year earlier.
"The financial result for 2013 reflects the monetary policy stance as well as our commitment to an efficient use of resources and prudent financial management, at a time of increasing responsibilities and tasks entrusted to the ECB," said bank head Mario Draghi.
As in previous years, a substantial part of the ECB's profits came from interest income from its Securities Markets Programme or SMP -- a controversial scheme for buying up the bonds of countries that are finding it difficult to drum up cash via the financial markets.
But the income from the SMP was down on the previous year.
Overall, net interest income fell to 2.005 billion euros last year from 2.289 billion euros a year earlier.
Of that total, the ECB earned 962 million euros from the SMP, including 437 million euros from the holdings of Greek sovereign debt, the central bank said.
The year before, SMP income had amounted to 1.108 billion euros, of which 555 million euros came from the bank's holdings of Greek debt.
The central bank earns income on the investment of its foreign reserve assets, its own funds portfolio, interest income on its share of the total euro banknotes in circulation, and interest income arising from bond holdings.
The ECB decided to set aside just 0.4 billion euros in risk provisions, down from 1.166 billion euros a year earlier.
The ECB said it would distribute a total 1.43 billion euros of its net profit to the national central banks of the euro area.
It has already distributed 1.37 billion euros of its net profit to the national central banks of the euro area, with the remaining 661 million euros to be transferred on Friday.
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