Danske Bank has today reported third-quarter pretax profit which were below forecasts.
Denmark's largest lender by market capitalisation said the negative interest rate environment has an ongoing adverse effect on the business.
The Copenhagen-based bank said pretax profit rose 5% from a year ago to 4.72 billion Danish crowns (€632m) in the three months from July to September, lagging a forecast of 5.21 billion crowns (€700m).
"It's a challenge to manage a bank in a negative interest environment but is something we now have some practice in," chief executive Thomas Borgen said in the statement.
The Danish central bank has kept its key deposit rate below zero since September last year and has been at -0.75% since the start of this year.
The bank recorded for the second consecutive quarter a negative loan impairment charge of 86 million crowns and it helped to offset a falling top line.
The group kept its full-year outlook of a net profit of above 16 billion crowns (€2.15 billion).
