Rothschild has proved it is not immune from the economic downturn, revealing in its latest annual report that operating profit before profit share and tax fell 30% to £89.8m (€141.6m) for the year ending March 2002.

Despite the falling profits the administrative expenses (excluding profit share) increased by 2.9% to £123.6m, and the staff costs increased by 11.1%. Bad debt charges and provisions against debt securities sharply increased from £1.3m last year to £8.1m, mainly because of exposure to borrowers in Argentina. The figures, published in the annual report, show that pre-tax profits were almost half the level of the year before, at £21.4m compared to £38.2m previously. Operating income was £227m, which was 10.9% lower than the year before.