Financial services giant ING Groep NV reported a 12% drop in second quarter net profit on Thursday, despite improving performances from its main banking and insurance operations.

Net profit was 1.64 billion euros (US$1.98 billion), down from 1.86 billion euros (US$2.11 billion) a year ago, when the Amsterdam-based company booked a one-time gain of 687 million euros (US$780.7 million).

But sales rose 4.8% to 13.5 billion euros (US$16.3 billion). Operating profit rose 23% to 935 million euros (US$1.13 billion) at ING’s insurance division, and 65% to 670 million euros (US$808.6 million) at its banking division.

Chief executive Michel Tilmant said insurance claims were “exceptionally low,” and the company was seeing strong growth in new life insurance policies. The banking operations benefited from a mix of higher interest rates, fewer bad loans, and relatively slight growth in overhead costs.

Tilmant said the company was “optimistic about the results for the full year, [but] we have adopted a policy to no longer give profit forecasts.”

The results were better than analysts had expected.