By Laura Noonan
AMSTERDAM, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Dutch financial services giant ING recorded underlying net profit of 3.255 billion euros ($4.45 billion) for 2013, 22 percent better than its 2012 performance and ahead of analysts' expectations.
"The improvement was driven by a solid performance at ING Bank, which recorded a 21.6 percent increase in underlying pre-tax results," ING Chief Executive Ralph Hamers said in a statement. Operating earnings at ING insurance rose 6.4 percent.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the group to return underlying net profits of 3.063 billion euros.
The bank took 560 million euros of loan losses in the fourth quarter, marginally higher than the 552 million euros it took in the third quarter of 2013.
Business and mortgage lending in the Netherlands, which was stripped of its AAA rating by Standard & Poor's in November over fears of economic weakness, accounted for 220 million euros of the charge.
"Our Dutch mortgage book has performed well, it's been very stable," Chief Financial Officer Patrick Flynn told CNBC in an interview. "It's the small biz sector, which is a much smaller book, (that) has seen a little more weakness."
ING said that loan losses in its Dutch retail bank were expected to remain elevated in the coming quarters.
It said it would not pay any dividend for 2013, but did not give guidance beyond that.