Banco de Credito e Inversiones SA's second-quarter profit rose 14.23% annually, driven by a marked increase in the bank's net fee income due to the incorporation of the Walmart Financial Services business.

The Chile-based lender booked net income of 112.36 billion pesos in the period, up from 98.36 billion pesos a year earlier.

BCI's financial margin income hit 329.85 billion pesos, growing 5.49% from 312.68 billion pesos in the prior quarter and rising 22.27% from 269.76 billion pesos in the year-ago period.

Net fees rose 22.39% yearly to 85.76 billion pesos, driven by the integration of operations from TotalBank and Walmart Financial Services. The latter, in particular, added more than 20 billion pesos of net fee income after six months of operations, BCI said.

Other net operating income surged 1,164.51% to 4.49 billion pesos.

Provisions and write-offs advanced 35.91% annually to 104.73 billion pesos. Operating expenses reached 225.63 billion pesos, up 19.66% from a year ago.

Total loans grew 8.62% yearly to 31.329 trillion pesos. However, the bank's nonperforming loan ratio rose to 1.58% from 1.42% a year ago.

BCI's return on average equity rose to 12.80% from 12.68% a year earlier, while its return on average assets ticked up to 1.02% from 1.01%.

The bank's results included a 21.52% year-over-year decline in taxes, which totaled 33.32 billion pesos.

As of July 30, US$1 was equivalent to 700.96 Chilean pesos.