BancoSantander SA reported first-quarter profit attributable to thegroup of €1.63 billion, down from €1.72 billion in the same period a year ago.

EPS for the quarter stood at 11 cents, compared to 12 cents ayear earlier.

The bank attributed the decline in attributable profit tothe negative impact of exchange rates.

Net interest income fell on a yearly basis to €7.62 billionfrom €8.04 billion. Net fees also decreased, to €2.40 billion from €2.52billion.

Gains on financial transactions amounted to €504 million,down year over year from €695 million. The Spanish lenderunderscored that the 2015 amount, however, was high due to the management ofits interest rate hedging of portfolios.

Net loan loss provisions reached €2.41 billion, compared tothe year-ago €2.56 billion.

Santander's Spanish operations reported first-quarterattributable profit of €307 million, down 9.6% from the year-ago period.Attributable profit from the U.K., where the bank operates as Santander UK Plc,fell 3.9% on a yearly basis to €453 million. The bank's Brazil operationsreported attributable profit of €359 million, down 24.8% from the firstquarter of 2015.

The group's nonperforming loans ratio stood at 4.33% at theend of March, compared to 4.36% at the end of 2015 and 4.85% at March-end 2015.Its coverage ratio was 74.0% in the first quarter, compared with 68.9% in theyear-ago period.

The bank's phase-in common equity Tier 1 ratio stood at12.36% at March-end, compared to 12.55% at Dec. 31, 2015, and 11.91% at March31, 2015. The fully loaded ratio stood at 10.27%, compared to 10.05% and 9.67%during the respective earlier periods.