The lender said allowance for credit losses was EUR 4.2m ($5.45m) to 31 March, mainlydue to marine finance, up from EUR 3.3m in the same period of 2012, but stillwell below the hundreds of millions of euros logged by some rivals.

Net profit reached EUR 39.4m, against EUR17.5m a year ago, while net interest income was EUR 68.3m from EUR 53.5m.

In