TORONTO: Royal Bank of Canada reported a 4 percent increase in quarterly earnings on Friday, driven by strong results from its wealth management and capital markets divisions.
The bank, as widely expected, also boosted its quarterly dividend by about 6 percent to 75 Canadian cents a share.
Canada's largest bank reported net income of C$2.38 billion($2.17 billion), or C$1.59 a share, for the third quarter ended July 31, compared with C$2.29 billion, or C$1.51 a share, a year earlier.
The increase came despite a slight drop in profit from RBC's core personal and commercial banking business because of the sale of its operations in Jamaica.
In January, RBC announced it had agreed to sell its Jamaican banking operations to Sagicor Group Jamaica Ltd.
It said at the time that it expected to lose about C$60 million from the transaction, partly due to a goodwill writedown.
Excluding charges from the sale of the Jamaica operations and other one-time items, the bank posted a 10 percent jump in profit to C$2.42 billion or C$1.62 a share, from C$2.20 billion, or C$1.45 a share, a year earlier.
RBC is the first Canadian bank to announce its third-quarter results.
Rivals Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada are all set to report results next week.
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