UniCredit first quarter profits double under new leadership

Italy's largest bank by assets, UniCredit, says net profits more than doubled in the first quarter, with all divisions showing improvement under new management.

The bank said Thursday that its net profit for the first three months of the year was 907 million euros ($986 million), up from 406 million euros a year earlier, when the bank was hit by a one-time restructuring cost.

CEO Jean Pierre Mustier, who took over last summer, called the first quarter "encouraging."

Commissions rose 4.5 percent to 1.28 billion euros, mostly due to investment services, while interest income dropped 2.5 percent to 2.5 billion euros. The bank cut costs by 3 percent.

The bank's stock of non-performing loans was reduced by one third to 55.3 billion euros.