Rabobank posts a net result of EUR 2,694 million in the first half of 2025
Chair of the Managing Board Stefaan Decraene: "In the first half of this year Rabobank posted robust results, remaining a rock-solid bank. We did this in an environment dominated by growing global tensions: ongoing armed conflicts, unpredictable trade-wars and a political deadlock in the Netherlands. In these uncertain times being resilient has become even more important. As a cooperative bank we can make a difference by being a stable partner for our customers, members and society."
"In the Netherlands we maintained our leading position in the mortgage market (21% market share of new production), enabling more than 27,000 customers to buy a new home or improve their current one. We also remained the market leader in SME lending, supporting over 100,000 entrepreneurs to invest in and expand their business activities throughout the Netherlands. Within private banking our assets under management grew by EUR 1.5 billion, in line with our ambition.
Globally, next to our position as the leading F&A bank, we grew our customer base of wholesale customers active in the energy transition by 37%. We continued to invest in accelerating the energy transition by financing over EUR 1.8 billion in renewable energy projects; from wind projects in Taiwan and France to solar projects in the US and Spain.
These achievements contributed to our net profit over the first half of 2025, amounting to EUR 2,694 million compared to EUR 2,818 million for the same period in 2024. This moderate decrease in net profit was driven by the impact of lower interest rates. Within Domestic Retail Banking (DRB) margins on deposits were lower, which was partly off-set by increased deposit volumes, totaling EUR 355 (Dec 2024: 341) billion, and ongoing growth of our loan portfolio by EUR 5.6 billion, of which our mortgage portfolio grew by EUR 3.6 billion and our business loan portfolio by EUR 2.0 billion. Meanwhile at constant exchange rates Wholesale & Rural (W&R) realized a loan growth of EUR 4.6 billion and our lease portfolio grew fractionally since the beginning of this year. However, foreign exchange (FX) effects negatively impacted the euro equivalent amounts of these portfolios.
Operating expenses increased marginally by 1% as lower average staff levels were offset by wage increases. As our remediation plan is finalized, the FTE reduction in our Financial Economic Crime (FEC) operations continued its downward trajectory from mid-2024.
Impairment charges on financial assets remained low at EUR 136 (June 2024: EUR 279) million.
Rabobank’s cost/income ratio increased from 50.7% to 51.8%, due to higher operating expenses and lower income. Our return on equity amounted to 10.0% (June 2024: 11.1%). The CET1 ratio strongly improved further to 19.9% from 16.9% in December 2024, making Rabobank one of the best capitalized banks in Europe. This jump was driven by an increase in capital as well as an expected decrease in risk-weighted assets, mainly due to the implementation of the CRR3 (revision of European capital regulation) as of January 2025. This rock-solid position gives our bank the possibility to support our growth strategy, our key societal transitions and to keep contributing to society via our cooperative initiatives.
I want to thank our customers, members and employees for their continued trust and support. Together we continue to work on a stable future."