ABN Amro sees cost pressures ahead despite reaching 2028 target

By Jakob Van Calster and Mateusz Rabiega

Aug 12 (Reuters) - ABN Amro executives cautioned on Wednesday that the Dutch lender still faces cost headwinds, despite its headline cost efficiency metric landing below its 2028 target already in the latest quarter.

The bank reported a cost-to-income ratio of 53.7% for the second quarter of 2026, below its stated goal of less than 55% by 2028.

The company management, however, said investors should not immediately expect further revisions to the target, as it needs to account for second-half costs, including labour negotiations, seasonal fourth-quarter effects and banking levies.

"It looks like you're already below the 55% cost income. Correct. But if you look on a pro forma basis, including the effect of levies, we would be at around 56%," Chief Financial Officer Ferdinand Vaandrager said during a media call.

CEO Marguerite Bérard said the bank was making good progress on structural cost reductions, but warned that inflation, wage negotiations and continued investment needs in areas such as data centres, cybersecurity and IT development could add to future costs.

Second-quarter costs were reduced to €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion), beating market forecasts, with the bank still having more than halfway to go to meet its labour reduction goal by 2028. 

Asked whether AI could aid the bank's cost-cutting drive, Bérard said ABN viewed the technology primarily as a tool for innovation and transformation rather than a balance sheet exercise.

"This is not the way we look at artificial intelligence," she said, quoting Amara's law, an adage from 1978 that suggests people tend to overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies while underestimating their long-term effects.

($1 = 0.8669 euros)

(Reporting by Jakob Van Calster and Mateusz Rabiega in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)