Banca Carige SpA reported an IFRS 9 first-quarter net profit attributable to the parent of €6.4 million, compared to a year-ago loss of €41.1 million.
Return on equity was 0.3%, compared to a negative ROE of 2.0% a year ago.
Net interest income fell year over year to €55.5 million from €62.6 million, but net fee and commission income ticked up to €61.9 million from €61.8 million. The Italian lender booked net losses on impairment of loans of €12.8 million, down 83% on a yearly basis from €75.6 million.
Losses from contributions and other banking system charges also fell year over year to €8.4 million from €11.0 million.
Based on operational estimates, the bank's phased-in common equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 12.1%, above the 9.625% minimum threshold required by the European Central Bank and the 11.175% threshold inclusive of Pillar 2 capital guidance. The bank noted that its fully loaded CET1 and total capital ratio under IFRS 9 were 10.0% and 10.1%, respectively.
As of March-end, the bank's gross nonperforming loan ratio was 26.7%, down from 27.0% at 2017-end. The coverage ratio for NPLs, including write-offs, stood at 52.3%, up quarter over quarter from 47.7%.
The net nonperforming exposure ratio, i.e. inclusive of provisions, declined 7 percentage points year over year to 15.6%, and Carige said its estimated gross NPEs would amount to about €2.7 billion at 2018-end, lower than the ECB's target of €4.6 billion for 2018 and €3.7 billion for 2019.
Carige noted that the comparative figures were not restated to reflect the adoption of IFRS 9 accounting rules.
