Danske Bank sees loan impairments staying high in Q4

Denmark's biggest financial group, Danske Bank, reported a smaller-than-forecast drop in pretax earnings for the third quarter and said impairment charges against loans were likely to remain high.

Pretax profits fell to 1.1 billion Danish crowns ($218million) in July-September from 1.58 billion in the same quarter last year.

The result beat an average expectation of a drop to 843 million crowns in a Reuters poll of 17 analysts whose forecasts ranged widely from a loss of 187 million to a pretax profit of2.21 billion."Loan impairment charges are expected to remain high in the fourth quarter, reflecting the general economic climate" DanskeBank said in a statement.

"The group expects the level of activity to be unchanged in the fourth quarter, with net interest income and net fee income at roughly the same levels as in the third quarter" it said.