Italian bank Intesa SanPaolo sees earnings rise

Italian bank Intesa SanPaolo Wednesday that its second-quarter profit rose by nearly 11 percent as the bank pushed into wealth management and further cut costs.

Italy's second-largest bank by assets reported net income was 927 million ($1 billion) in the three months through June, compared with 837 million euros a year earlier.

Earnings were boosted by a 35-percent increase in trading profit to 472 million euros, as management trimmed 5 percent from operating costs to 2.3 billion euros, led by steep cuts in administrative expenses.

Net interest income was down 2.7 percent to around 1.84 billion euros, while net fees and commissions were flat at 1.99 billion euros. The bank's core Tier 1 capital ratio, a key measure of the bank's strength, was 13.6 percent.

CEO Carlo Messina said the first half results were the best in a decade, with a net income of 2.2 billion, up 25 percent.

Messina said that based on the results, the bank will exceed its 3.8 billion full-year profits, with an expected dividend payout ratio of 85 percent of net income.

The bank also announced that it had provided medium- and long-term loans of more than 25 billion euros in the first six months of the year, helping 8,000 companies with 40,000 employees return to health. The bank said it would launch a new fund in September to provide 1.2 billion euros to students, researchers, female entrepreneurs and startups.