Chilean banks post a 73.3% rise in net income

Chilean banks posted total net income of 209bn pesos (US$373mn) in January, up 73.3% from the year-ago month.

According to a report, local banking regulator SBIF said excluding figures from CorpBanca's (NYSE: BCA) Colombia unit net income increased 75.4% to 200bn pesos in January.

Chilean banks saw loans grow 11.3% in the 12 months ended January 2014 to 117tn pesos and 8.3% to 112tn pesos, excluding CorpBanca's Colombia unit. Of total lending, commercial loans grew 14.5% in the 12-month period, consumer loans rose 11.2% in the period and mortgage loans increased 10.3%, SBIF said.

Banks' consolidated 90-day NPL ratio was 2.16%. By segment commercial loans had a 1.72% NPL ratio, consumer loans had a 2.14% NPL ratio and mortgage loans had a 3.28% NPL ratio.

The return on equity after taxes was 19.1% for the banks, the SBIF said.