DNB announced its financial results for 2023.
The bank’s loss increased from 460 million euros in 2022 to 3.5 billion euros in 2023. Thus, the bank’s loss increased by about 8 times compared to 2022 due to the ECB’s interest rate hikes against inflation.
“While interest rates rose and our interest expense increased, our interest income barely increased,” the bank’s statement said.
DNB warned of possible annual losses until 2028 as the ECB’s monetary tightening affects its balance sheet, saying: “However, we expect to return to profitability from 2029. We will try to restore our buffers in the first few years before distributing dividends to the Dutch treasury. However, our prospects for restoring our buffers are subject to considerable uncertainty.”
Meanwhile, the ECB had raised interest rates by a total of 450 basis points in 10 consecutive meetings since July 2022.
The ECB, which continued to increase interest rates last year, did not change in October, December and January 2024 meetings after raising the refinancing rate to 4.50 percent at its meeting in September 2023.
ECB officials had announced that it would keep interest rates at sufficiently restrictive levels for as long as necessary to bring inflation back to the 2 percent target in time.
