Spanish bank Unicaja said Monday that its first-quarter net profit more than tripled compared with the same period in 2023 thanks to higher loan income and lower provisions.

The country's sixth-largest bank in terms of market value posted a net profit of 111 million euros in the January-March period, above the 89 million euros expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Spanish banks are mainly retail banks and have benefited from rising interest rates for longer than initially expected, charging more for loans and keeping rates paid to savers in check.

In the quarter, Unicaja's cost of deposits remained contained and was up only 8 basis points from the previous quarter.

The bank's net interest income, a measure of loan profits minus deposit costs, rose 32.3% year-on-year in the quarter to EUR390 million, above the EUR381 million analysts expected, while net interest income was up 2.7% from the previous quarter.

(1 U.S. dollar = 0.9322 euros)

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; editing by Inti Landauro; Spanish edition by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)