Cooperative bank Rabobank booked net profit of over €1.3bn in the first six months of this year, an increase of 14% on 2006. Pre-tax profits rose 14% to over €1.6bn.

The growth was spread evenly across all sectors of the group’s operations, chairman Bert Heemskerk said. He added that the bank had been affected by the current unrest on the financial markets but that he felt the knock-on effect of US developments was exaggerated.