BPER lifts adjusted profit 16.4% to €2,013.6 million in nine months
Key Facts
BPER Banca said on November 5, 2026, that adjusted consolidated net profit reached €2,013.6 million in the nine months ended September 30, up 16.4% year on year. The board had approved the results at a meeting held on the afternoon of November 4. The adjusted figure excludes the effects of total return swap contracts and other market factors; excluding them, net profit was €1,941.4 million, up 12.2% from the comparable period. Chief Executive Gianni Franco Papa said commercial performance was positive during the quarter and the nine months. He added that the bank delivered good results despite continued economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
Core revenue grew more slowly than profit, rising 3.5% to €5,378.8 million in the nine months. Net interest income increased by the same rate to €3,375.1 million, while net commission and fee income rose 3.4% to €2,003.7 million. In the third quarter alone, net interest income was €1.16 billion, up about 8% from the third quarter of 2025. Reuters attributed the quarterly increase to higher interest rates. The annual figures show that core income growth came from both interest and commissions, while interest income grew faster in the third quarter than over the nine months.
Wealth management and bancassurance activities supported commission income growth, with wealth management fees rising 9.2% and bancassurance fees 11.6% year on year in the nine months. Total financial assets reached €423.9 billion on September 30, an annual increase of €9.9 billion. These figures place the expansion of the asset base alongside growth in fees tied to the bank’s services to customers. By comparison, net commission and fee income overall grew just 3.4% to €2,003.7 million, highlighting the different growth rates across fee sources. This came as adjusted net profit grew faster than core revenue.
On asset quality and capital, the gross non-performing loan ratio was 2.3% and the net ratio 1.1% on September 30, with coverage of gross non-performing loans at 53.4%. The Common Equity Tier 1, or CET1, ratio was about 15.1% on the same date. Reuters said the bank had slightly upgraded its 2026 guidance, targeting a cost of risk below 35 basis points and a CET1 ratio above 14.5%. The cost-of-risk guidance sets a ceiling for provisions related to credit risk, while the stated CET1 target is below the ratio recorded at the end of September. These levels come in the context of the nine-month results, which combined profit growth with non-performing loan and capital indicators.
BPER’s results come as Italy’s banking sector sees merger activity, Reuters reported. Intesa Sanpaolo’s offer to buy Monte dei Paschi was on the table after Monte dei Paschi shareholders rejected CEO Lovaglio’s plan to counter the offer the previous month. Reuters said a successful offer would have enabled major shareholder Unipol to merge BPER with 635 Monte dei Paschi branches. That places BPER’s results and new guidance within a landscape of potential sector reshaping, while developments related to the offer remain part of the market context reported by the agency. In this setting, Papa pointed to continued economic and geopolitical uncertainty when describing the bank’s commercial performance.
The board approved an interim dividend for fiscal 2026 of €0.33 per ordinary share, totaling €694.111 million. The bank set November 23, 2026, as the ex-dividend date, November 24 as the record date, and payment for November 25. The dividend is among the decisions accompanying the nine-month results, alongside the slight upgrade to annual guidance. Under the announced schedule, the ex-dividend date falls one day before the record date, while payment is due the day after the record date. These are the dates the bank announced to shareholders for the interim dividend.