Argentina's Banco Santander Río SA on Aug. 12 booked net income of 5.49 billion Argentine pesos for the second quarter of 2019, up 142% from the 2.27 billion pesos in the same period a year ago.

The results came as the bank's second-quarter net operating income jumped 57% year over year to 19.23 billion pesos from the 12.24 billion pesos earned in the year-ago period.

Net interest income jumped 95% to 14.32 billion pesos from 7.36 billion pesos a year earlier. However, personnel expenses also rose, to 4.30 billion pesos from 2.43 billion pesos, while depreciation and impairment of assets shot up 108% to 1.06 billion pesos from 509 million pesos in the year-ago period.

Administrative costs rose to 3.85 billion pesos from 2.52 billion pesos. Provisions for loan losses grew to 2.75 billion pesos from 1.82 billion pesos a year ago.

At the end of June, Santander Río's loan portfolio to the private sector amounted to 237.08 billion pesos, up 7.5% from the same month a year ago, with credit card lending rising 32.8% year over year.

The bank's delinquency rate was 4.33% for the quarter, up 30 basis points from the linked quarter and up from 2.4% in the year-ago period.

Return on equity was 40.9% in the second quarter, up from 33.2% a year earlier. Return on assets also rose to 3.6% from 2.6%.

As of Aug. 12, US$1 was equivalent to 55.33 Argentine pesos.