VTB Bank PJSC's first-quarter net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent fell to 46.6 billion Russian rubles from 55.6 billion rubles in the same period in 2018.

EPS was 0.36 kopeck, compared with the year-ago 0.43 kopeck. Andrey Kostin, president and management board chairman, noted that return on equity for the quarter was 12%.

Net interest income slipped on a yearly basis to 104.2 billion rubles from 116.3 billion rubles, so did net fee and commission income, to 21.6 billion rubles from 21.9 billion rubles. Noninterest gains totaled 14.0 billion rubles in the period, compared to the year-ago 9.7 billion rubles.

Net losses from insurance activity came in at 2.7 billion rubles, compared with a year-ago revenue of 6.3 billion rubles.

The St. Petersburg-based lender booked provision charges for credit losses on debt financial assets of 14.3 billion rubles, lower than 20.5 billion rubles a year earlier. Noninterest expenses were flat year over year at 67.5 billion rubles.

The group's nonperforming loan ratio stood at 5.8% at March-end, up from 5.7% at 2018-end.

As of March 31, VTB's Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 12.3%, compared with 12.0% as of Dec. 31, 2018.

As of May 29, US$1 was equivalent to 65.18 Russian rubles.