MOSCOW: Russia's VTB reported a jump in quarterly net profit to 14.8 billion roubles ($231 million) on Tuesday as the country's second-largest bank easily beat analysts' forecasts.
The second-quarter performance was more than 10 times the size of its profit a year earlier, reflecting an improvement in banking sector conditions as Russia's economy starts to emerge from a deep slump.
Analysts had forecast a profit of 4.8 billion roubles for the second quarter. A year earlier it reported a profit of 1.2 billion.
VTB, like several other Russian state lenders, is under Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict which limit its ability to borrow on international markets.
Net interest income jumped by 65 percent to 108.7 billion roubles while net fee and commission income rose 12 percent to 19.2 billion.
Provisions rose to 62.3 billion roubles, indicating that loan quality is still a challenge for Russia's top banks.
VTB has played a major role in channelling capital to resource exporters which dominate the Russian economy.
It is headed by Andrei Kostin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
VTB's shares were up 0.5 percent by 0755 GMT versus Moscow's MICEX index which was up by 0.4 percent.
The bank's second-quarter profit was still a fraction of what the bank earned in previous years, before the Ukraine crisis and a sharp fall in oil prices.
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