KBC BANK IRELAND has reduced the scale of its impaired loans by half for the first quarter of the year.
The level of provision for bad debt has dropped from €99 million during the first quarter of 2013 to €47.9 million for the same period this year.
Losses after tax and impairment charges came down to €17.1 million, compared to a loss of €46.4 million last year.
The bank is pressing on with new customer acquisition, adding over 9,000 customer accounts and €0.2 billion in retail deposits during Q1.
Another five branches are planned for Dublin, and it said that it will continue aggressively pursuing new customers. KBC ran a ‘change your bank day’ earlier this year, and launched new a new credit card and various personal banking services.
The bank employs over 800 people in Ireland with banking hubs in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.
Chief executive Wm Verbraeken said that the losses and impairments were “in line with our expectations” and that the bank expects to return to profitability in 2016.
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