Monte dei Paschi: returns to profit in first-half

(CercleFinance.com) - Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena said it made a profit in the first six months of the year, citing positive trends in commercial activity and an improvement in asset quality.


The troubled Italian bank said consolidated profit at 30 June 2018 came in at 289 million euros, against a loss of 3.2 billion euros for the same period of 2017.

Its first-half net operating result was also positive, reaching 308 million euros, compared with a 4 billion euro loss recorded for the same period of the previous year.

In Friday's statement, the lender mentions the positive effects of the reduced cost of funding, as well as a drop in impairment losses on financial assets.

The cost of risk for the first half of the year stood at 56 basis points.

Finally, the bank's Common Equity Tier 1 ratio - a key measure of its financial strength - stood at 13% at the end of June, slightly below the previous quarter.

The Milan-listed shares were down 4.4% after the report. They have now fallen by over 35% over the past six months.

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