Itau Unibanco Sees Increase in 1Q Profit

Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Brazil's second-largest bank by assets, said Wednesday it posted an increase in net profit in the first quarter after reducing operational and loan-loss provisions expenses.

Recurring net profit, which excludes one-time items, was up 6.2% from the previous quarter and up 19.6% from a year ago, to 6.2 billion reais ($1.96 billion) in the first three months of 2017, the bank said.

Itau's expenses with loan loss provisions were cut 7.4% in the quarter, mainly in the retail segment. Non-interest expenses fell 7.8% from the fourth quarter of 2016, with lower personnel and administrative expenses due to reduced costs for profit sharing and on third-party services and facilities, mainly rent, renovations and maintenance costs, which were negative highlights in the previous quarter, the bank said.

Write to Luciana Magalhaes at luciana.magalhaes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 03, 2017 08:18 ET (12:18 GMT)