Italian bank Intesa's profits rise amid lower loan losses

Italian bank Intesa SanPaolo SpA says its third-quarter profits rose 16 percent on higher net fees and commissions.

The bank said Tuesday that its net income was 731 million euros ($845 million) in the three months ending Sept. 30, compared with 628 million euros in the same period last year.

Italy's second-largest bank by assets also set aside 646 million euros in loan-loss provisions for the quarter, down from 917 million in the same period last year.

The bank said net fees and commissions rose by 10 percent to 1.95 billion euros while interest income dropped 2 percent to 1.8 billion euros.

Intesa SanPaolo announced it would book a capital gain of 800 million euros on the sale of the mutual fund platform Allfunds in the fourth quarter.