Amsterdam - The Dutch division of the ABN Amro bank made a small profit in the first three months of 2009, the bank said in its first quarter report released on Monday.

Net results for the division, nationalized by the Dutch state in the wake of the global economic meltdown, amounted to 87 million euros (121.56 million dollars).

That was a sharp drop compared with the same period last year, when net results amounted to 226 million euros. This was mainly caused by write-offs on corporate lending, the bank said.

Net results for the entire ABN Amro Group - owned by Spanish Banco Santander, Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland and, since October 2008, the Dutch state - showed a deeper fall, with a loss of 886 million euros in the first quarter of 2009.

The RBS division of ABN Amro suffered a loss of 928 million euros, while Banco Santander manage to limit its losses to 3 million euros only.

The bank said its capital ratio, however, increased from 14.4 to 16.8 per cent since December 31.

ABN Amro said its final decoupling into three separate banks would be completed by the end of this year.

The Dutch ABN Amro division would then be united with the Dutch branch of Fortis Bank that was also nationalized by the Dutch government in October.

The integrated ABN Amro and Fortis banks would continue to focus on Dutch commercial and consumer clients, as well as international private clients, the bank said in its first quarter report.(dpa)