Italian bank Intesa SanPaolo reports Q2 profits more than double to $600m

Italian bank Intesa SanPaolo SpA says its third-quarter profits more than doubled as it benefited from higher interest income and commissions.

The bank, which passed last month's stress test by the European Central Bank, reported net income of 483 million euros ($600 million), compared with 218 million euros in the same period last year.

Italy's second-largest bank by assets also set aside 1.3 billion euros in loan loss provisions for the quarter. Provisioning for the first nine months was 3.5 billion euros, down nearly 13 percent from last year's levels.

The bank noted that the level of performing loans was improving, and said it registered 24 billion euros in medium- and long-term loans to families and businesses in the first nine months of the year.