ABN Amro has blamed a near 40% fall in investment banking pre-tax profits in the first half of the year on the costs of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II.

The Dutch bank maintained revenues for its global clients unit, which provides sector coverage and advice on mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets to corporate clients, at €1.1bn ($1.4bn) for the first six months to June 30 but pre-tax profits fell to €158m from €259m for the same period last year.