ING posts €2b loss in first quarter

Dutch bank ING reported a first quarter net loss of €1.92 billion, a polar opposite of the €1.9 billion net profit in the first three months of 2013, according to Reuters. The loss was primarily attributed to one-time costs, including a €1 billion pension charge, and a €2.01 billion accounting hit on ING's investment in Voya Financial Inc. Voya, a U.S. insurance and financial firm, is the former full subsidiary of ING Groep N.V. It was spun off as ING U.S. with a 2013 IPO, and went through a name change and rebranding earlier this year. Without those standalone costs from ING's bottom line, pre-tax profit would have been €988 million, a drop off of 15.5 percent from the January-March 2013 underlying net profit of €1.17 billion, but nearly double the figure for the last quarter of 2013. Customers of the firm's banking operations have €8.3 billion in accounts there. The bank's lending operation grew by €5.1 billion.