Itau Follows Bradesco Boosting Provisions for Brazil Crisis
- Brazilian bank's set-aside for souring loans jumps 31%
- First-quarter earnings fall short of analysts' estimates
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Itau Unibanco Holding SA reported a 31 percent surge in provisions for souring loans, joining Banco Bradesco SA in missing first-quarter profit estimates as the industry copes with Brazil’s worst recession in a century.
Shares of the company fell the most in almost a month after bad-loan provisions jumped to 7.23 billion reais ($2.1 billion) in the first quarter from 5.52 billion reais a year earlier. The wholesale-loan business accounted for 2.91 billion reais of the total, almost double last year’s figure, “mainly due to higher provisions for specific economic groups,” Sao Paulo-based Itau said in a statement Tuesday, without giving more details.