Jyske Bank A/S reported fourth-quarter 2017 profit after tax of 780 million Danish kroner, down from 1.20 billion kroner in the same period in 2016.

Pretax profit dropped on a yearly basis to 977 million kroner from 1.50 billion kroner. The Danish lender's core profit reached 1.01 billion kroner in the period, compared to 1.20 billion kroner in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Net interest income rose year over year to 1.54 billion kroner from 1.46 billion kroner. Net fee and commission income increased over the same period to 654 million kroner from 501 million kroner.

Loan impairment charges amounted to 139 million kroner, narrowing from 293 million kroner in the fourth quarter of 2016.

For full year 2017, the bank reported group profit distributed to shareholders of 3.05 billion kroner, down from 3.09 billion kroner a year ago. EPS for the year rose to 34.66 kroner from 33.49 kroner in 2016.

The bank's after-tax return on equity reached 9.7% in 2017, compared to 10.1% in 2016. Jyske Bank said it continues to target an after-tax return on average equity of between 8% to 12%, exclusive of the effect of the new IFRS 9 accounting standards. Based on equity at the end of 2017, the target corresponds to after-tax profit of between 2.6 billion kroner and 3.8 billion kroner, the bank noted.

The common equity Tier 1 capital ratio stood at 16.4% at the end of 2017, down from 16.5% a year ago. Jyske Bank said its supervisory board will make a motion for the distribution of an ordinary dividend of 5.85 kroner per share for the year, compared to 5.25 kroner per share in 2016.

As of Feb. 19, US$1 was equivalent to 6.01 Danish kroner.