Italy's Intesa posts bigger than forecast 13.6% profit rise on fees, trading

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo confirmed its outlook for the year after posting a bigger-than-expected 13.6% yearly rise in first quarter profit thanks to rising fee and trading income.

That was more than enough to offset an 8% decline in the net interest margin, as the gap between lending and deposit rates shrinks.

Intesa said net profit for the three months through March totalled 2.6 billion euros ($2.9 billion), above an analyst consensus forecast compiled by Reuters of 2.4 billion euros.

($1 = 0.8838 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Gavin Jones)