KBC Bank Ireland has reported a loss after tax and impairment costs of €14m for the three months to the end of September.
This compares to a loss of €51m the same time last year and the bank said it remains on track to return to profitability by 2016.
The bank said its impairment charges amounted to €47m in the third quarter of the year, down from €98m the same time in 2013.
During the three month period, KBC continued to expand its retail banking operations with new "hub" locations opened in Maynooth, Co Kildare and in Dundrum in Dublin. It plans to open five new hubs early next year.
So far this year, the bank said it has opened over 30,000 new customer accounts and its total retail deposits now stand at €3.3 billion, up from €2.7 billion at the end of last year.
Wim Verbraeken, the chief executive of KBC Bank Ireland, said that the results and impairments are in line with its expectations and it remains on track to return to profitability by 2016.
"We are satisfied with our performance," he stated.
"We continue to grow our retail banking presence, focussing on busy footfall locations in urban centres with the recent acquisition of new hubs in Dublin and Maynooth, and five more planned for opening early 2015," the CEO said.
KBC Bank Ireland employs over 960 people in Ireland with retail banking hubs in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Kildare and Galway.
KBC Group beats expectations on better banking income
Meanwhile, its Belgian parent today reported a better than expected net profit for the third quarter, as a rise in income from its banking activities made up for lower insurance profits.
The group, which needed €7 billion of state aid during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, is firmly on a recovery path having repaid €5 billion and unwound €25 billion of collateralised debt obligations over past quarters.
It has also divested a range of businesses outside its core of Belgium, the Czech Republic and some other eastern European countries.
The Belgian bank's net profit, adjusted for one-off items, rose 4.4% in the third quarter to €477m, above the €400m expected in a Reuters poll.
KBC said net interest income increased by 11% from last year as it made good margins on both loans and deposits and its net interest margin rose to 2.15% thanks to lower funding costs.
The group said interest margins were boosted by costumers paying back or refinancing mortgages in the quarter, which gave the bank a short-term boost in terms of penalty fees that would not be sustainable.
It also repeated it expects Irish loan losses of between €150-200m in 2014, thereafter declining to €50-100m in 2015 and 2016. It aims for its Irish unit to be profitable from 2016.
