ABN AMRO makes Q3 loss on 500mn Greek writedown

AMSTERDAM: Dutch state-owned bank ABN AMRO on Friday slumped to a third-quarter loss due to a 500 million-euro writedown on Greek corporate loans and bonds.

"Uncertainty as a result of the sovereign debt crisis and the impact thereof on the European economy, caused us to impair part of the 1.4 billion euro Greek Government-Guaranteed Corporate Exposures," ABN AMRO said in a statement.

There were "sufficient indications" that ABN AMRO might not receive all the future cash flows related to the loans and bonds and therefore impaired part of the portfolio despite all obligations having been met to date, the bank said.

The writedown led to a third-quarter net loss of 54 million euros, compared with a 341 million euro profit in the same period last year.

ABN AMRO, which was nationalised by the Dutch state during the 2008 financial crisis, does not hold Greek government debt.

The bank, which the state plans to sell in 2014 or later, said it reduced its exposure to Italian and Belgian government bonds in the third quarter but it was not immediately clear whether the bank actively sold the bonds or whether bonds matured.

It cut exposure to Belgian bonds by almost 1 billion euros in the third quarter, with 1 billion remaining at the end of September, and cut about 1 billion euros of Italian bonds, with 0.3 billion remaining, company data showed.