By Pietro Lombardi

Credit Agricole SA's second-quarter net profit fell by less than analysts had expected as it took a hit from lower revenue and higher bad-loan provisions.

France's second-largest listed bank by assets had quarterly profits of 954 million euros ($1.13 billion), a 22% drop compared with the same period a year earlier, it said Thursday.

Provisions for soured loans more than doubled to EUR842 million. However, this was less than the EUR946 million analysts had forecast, according to a consensus forecast provided by FactSet, thus helping the bank beat expectations for net profit of EUR689 million.

"Half of that increase was related to provisioning for proven risks and the other half to the updating of the parameters for calculating provisioning for performing loans in the current context," the lender said.

Revenue declined 4.9% to EUR4.90 billion.

"Our Group emerges unharmed from a disruptive quarter," Chief Executive Philippe Brassac said.

Credit Agricole's core Tier 1 ratio, a key measure of capital strength, was 12% in June, from 11.4% at the end of March. 



  Write to Pietro Lombardi at pietro.lombardi@dowjones.com; @pietrolombard10