ACC Bank made pretax profits of €67.3 million last year, as the bank concentrated on providing banking and wealth management services to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The surplus was more than double the €32.5 million pretax profit recorded the previous year, when the bank suffered high impairment losses on loans.

Total operating income during 2006 came to €152.8 million, down 8.3 per cent on the previous year. Operating expenses rose 5 per cent to €95.8 million and included a number of one-off costs, according to the bank, which is owned by Dutch group Rabobank.

The cost-income ratio for the year was 62.7 per cent.

Commercial loans and advances exceeded 50 per cent of the total loans and advances to customers, which came to €6.5 billion. This was down 4.4 per cent on the €6.8 billion it advanced in 2005.

Net interest income fell 8.7 per cent to €142.6 million, while net fee and commission income was down almost 19 per cent to €6.9 million. The bank made a profit of almost €2 million, however, on the disposal of property.

As part of the its new focus on business banking, ACC Bank is changing some of its branches into dedicated business centres where local managers have greater discretion over loan approvals.

The bank was understood to have lost ground to rival lenders because loan approvals, which had to be signed off at its head office in Dublin, were taking longer on average.

Fergus Murphy, the newly appointed chief executive of ACC Bank, said the bank was pleased with the progress it had made in implementing its new strategy, improving the balance sheet and increasing the quality of the loan book.

He said the bank, which has traditionally operated in the agricultural sector, would be putting an emphasis on marketing activities in the months and years ahead as it seeks to rebrand to Rabobank.