(12 May 2016 – Italy) Unicredit, Italy's biggest bank by assets, said earlier this week that net profit fell by around a fifth at the start of the year due to restructuring costs in Italy and Austria.
The charges, totally around €230 million (A$356 million), weighed on the bank's net profit in the first quarter, which came to 406 million euros ($462 million), a 21 percent drop, it said.
The Italian bank said revenues for the quarter dropped by 4.7 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.
Net bad loans slightly increased to €20.2 billion but its coverage ratio improved to 61.2 percent.
Net impaired loans decreased by 2.0 percent in the quarter.
UniCredit also said its CET1 ratio was marginally lower compared to the end of December. It is slightly higher than the regulatory 10-percent target.
“Our capital ratios confirm the solidity of our group and our asset quality continues to improve: impaired loans continuously decrease, net bad loans are stable with a coverage ratio above 61 percent, the highest among Italian banks,” chief executive Federico Ghizzoni said in a statement.