Dutch lender Rabobank's H1 net profit jumps as economy recovers

AMSTERDAM, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Dutch lender Rabobank on Thursday reported a net profit of 2.16 billion euros ($2.54 billion) over the first half of 2021, as economic recovery helped it to release previous provisions for bad loans.

Net profit was almost 10 times higher than a year before, when the coronavirus pandemic led the cooperative bank to set aside over 1.4 billion euros for souring loans.

In the first six months of this year 274 million euros in provisions were released again as the Dutch economy recovered from its COVID-19 slump.

"There are two sides of the story when looking at the first half of 2021. One is that we see clients benefiting from the economic recovery," Chief Executive Wiebe Draijer said.

"On the other hand, we see that some clients are expected to face financial difficulties in the second half of the year as various government support measures end."

Rabobank, known primarily as an agricultural lender, said that its residential mortgage portfolio had remained the largest in the Netherlands with a market share of 23% of new production.

Deposits increased by 4% as lockdowns pushed up savings from consumers and companies.

($1 = 0.8516 euros) (Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Christopher Cushing)