KBC Group made a €405m one-off gain during the first quarter of the year related to the finalisation of the sale of its assets in Ireland.
Chief executive Johan Thijs said it plans to distribute surplus capital, including that raised by the sale of the Irish assets, through a share buyback and/or an exceptional interim dividend.
"The final decision on this matter will be taken by the Board of Directors in the next few months," he said.
The bank's Group Centre recorded a net result of €291m, which is €311m higher than the figure recorded in the previous quarter, thanks entirely to the positive impact from the receipt of €370m after tax from the finalisation of the sale of KBC Bank Ireland.
In February, KBC said it had completed the sale of its assets to Bank of Ireland, as part of its plan to exit the market here.
The portfolios making up the deal included €7.8 billion of loans and €1.8 billion of deposits.
Around 150,000 KBC customers transferred to Bank of Ireland as part of the €6.4 billion deal, which was first announced two years ago.
The loan portfolios were made up of €7.6 billion of performing mortgages, €0.1 billion of small and medium sized business and consumer loans and €0.1 billion of non-performing mortgages.
KBC closed almost all of its "hubs" or branches on March 10, with its final outlet, Grand Canal Dublin, shutting on August 31.
Overall KBC reported a net result of €882m for the first three months of the year, up from €727m on the previous quarter and €452m for the same three-month period last year.
However, the Belgian bank’s shares fell more than 6% after it missed net interest income (NII) estimates.
NII came in at €1.32 billion, down 7% quarter-on-quarter and below analysts' forecast of €1.37 billion.
"The war in Ukraine, alongside other geopolitical uncertainties, is continuing to dampen economic growth for the global economy," Mr Thijs said.
"On top of this, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse triggered turbulence on the financial markets," he said.
"The challenging environment is not distracting us from taking important steps towards achieving our strategic goals. In the quarter under review we finalised the sale of substantially all of the remaining assets and liabilities of KBC Bank Ireland," he stated.
"At the same time, the integration of the recently acquired ex-Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria into our existing Bulgarian banking subsidiary UBB is proceeding at full speed, with the legal merger of the entities being registered on 10 April 2023," he added.
