MILAN (AP) - UniCredit says its second-quarter profits grew by 8 percent as the Italian bank pushes reforms aimed at raising capital and cutting costs.
The bank, Italy’s biggest by assets, on Tuesday reported net profit of 1 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in the period, compared with 945 million euros in 2017.
The bank said it reduced its provisions for bad loans by a quarter, to 504 million euros, as total revenues declined by 4.3 percent to just under 5 billion euros on lower net interest and trading income. It said it had closed 58 branches in the quarter, nearly completing its target of 944 closures.
People were interested in these podcasts
The bank’s Core Tier 1 ratio, a measure of its health, was 12.5 percent, hurt by the impact of higher sovereign debt costs.
___
This story has been corrected to give last year’s figure as 945 million, not billion.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.