Dutch financial group Rabobank said it has no plans to pull out of the Irish market, and said it expected the full year provisions for ACC would be lower than last year.
The group posted a larger profit for the first half as retail volumes and wholesale lending grew, though the agricultural cooperative warned that economic growth was slowing globally.
Rabobank is the largest retail bank in the Netherlands and one of the world's largest agricultural lenders. It is also one of the world's largest banks to retain a "AAA" credit rating during the global financial crisis. It owns ACC bank in Ireland.
Today Rabobank posted a net profit of €1.66 billion, up from €1.32 billion a year earlier.
The bank's tier 1 ratio, profit growth and return on equity all beat internal targets, with the tier 1 ratio rising 110 basis points to 14.9 per cent. The bank has made its capital base a priority in order to maintain its credit rating.
Overall bad debt costs also fell by half since last year.
The domestic retail banking business benefited from both higher volumes and better margins, while higher lending to the international food and agricultural sectors boosted profits in the wholesale and international banking unit.
The strong international results come as Rabo advances a global expansion. In recent months it invested $200 million in the IPO of China's AgBank, advanced plans to set up its own Indian unit and bought two failed US banks in government auctions.
Chief executive Piet Moerland told a press conference the bank was committed to those expansion plans, particularly growing its presence in the central valley region of California as a food and agricultural retail bank.
The only unit where profits fell, the bank said, was the property division, where higher bad debt costs offset stronger underlying results.
The bank also warned it saw growth slowing in Asia and the US, but accelerating in the UK and euro zone.
In July, Rabobank Ireland reported its profits fell in 2009, largely due to an increase in impairment provisions in the year. It recorded a profit of € 26.3 million before taxation for 2009, down almost 41 per cent on 2008.