<p class="title">ING Groep NV, the largest Dutch bank, on Friday posted first-quarter pretax earnings of 1.02 billion euros ($1.11 billion), down 35.7% from last year, citing higher provisions taken for the potential fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The numbers, however, came in higher than estimates, as analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected a pre-tax profit of 549 million euros, but the lender cautioned that the impact of the pandemic in most markets started by mid-March.</p>.<p class="bodytext">ING took 661 million euros in loan provisions in the quarter, up from 207 million euros in the year-ago period.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The COVID-19 pandemic is profoundly affecting society and the economy throughout the world, and it will continue to do so for some time," Chief Executive Ralph Hamers said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The loan provisions included "several larger additions for files in wholesale banking and mid-corporates lending, on both existing and some new files," ING said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Dutch company also took more general provisions for increased risk - about 41 million euros in its U.S. loanbook resulting from falling oil prices and 206 million euros from worsening macroeconomic conditions as a result of the lockdown measures put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The company said gross results improved at its large retail banking businesses in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, while its wholesale banking business saw declines due to negative valuation adjustments.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Core lending grew by 12.3 billion euros in the quarter, while customer desposits rose 9.2 billion euros.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The company's net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, dipped to 1.51% from 1.57% a quarter earlier.</p>.<p class="bodytext">($1=0.9223 euros) (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)</p>
<p class="title">ING Groep NV, the largest Dutch bank, on Friday posted first-quarter pretax earnings of 1.02 billion euros ($1.11 billion), down 35.7% from last year, citing higher provisions taken for the potential fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The numbers, however, came in higher than estimates, as analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected a pre-tax profit of 549 million euros, but the lender cautioned that the impact of the pandemic in most markets started by mid-March.</p>.<p class="bodytext">ING took 661 million euros in loan provisions in the quarter, up from 207 million euros in the year-ago period.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The COVID-19 pandemic is profoundly affecting society and the economy throughout the world, and it will continue to do so for some time," Chief Executive Ralph Hamers said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The loan provisions included "several larger additions for files in wholesale banking and mid-corporates lending, on both existing and some new files," ING said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Dutch company also took more general provisions for increased risk - about 41 million euros in its U.S. loanbook resulting from falling oil prices and 206 million euros from worsening macroeconomic conditions as a result of the lockdown measures put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The company said gross results improved at its large retail banking businesses in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, while its wholesale banking business saw declines due to negative valuation adjustments.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Core lending grew by 12.3 billion euros in the quarter, while customer desposits rose 9.2 billion euros.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The company's net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, dipped to 1.51% from 1.57% a quarter earlier.</p>.<p class="bodytext">($1=0.9223 euros) (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)</p>