Italy's Intesa bank sees profits rebound despite charges

Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo saw its fourth-quarter profits rebound in the fourth quarter on markedly higher net fees and commissions.

The bank, Italy's second-largest by assets, on Friday reported net profit in the quarter of 776 million euros ($833 million) compared with 13 million euros in the same period last year.

Net fees and commissions rose 7.5 percent to 2 billion euros, while operating income was up 4 percent to 4 billion euros.

Even with the clear improvement, the results were hit by a contribution to a rescue fund set up to help struggling Italian banks and other levies. The bank said quarterly earnings otherwise would have been 1.1 billion euros.

Full-year earnings were 3.1 billion euros, up from 2.7 billion euros the previous year.