Intesa slashes assets to boost capital as profit tops forecast

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo on Friday beat expectations with its fourth quarter profit thanks to rising interest rates while it proceeded to slash assets to boost its capital buffers.

Moving to offset adverse regulatory changes kicking in from January, Intesa reduced its total assets by 47 billion euros ($51.37 billion) in the quarter, boosting its best quality capital ratio to 13.5% from 12.4% at the end of September.

With earnings boosted like peers by rising interest rates, Intesa posted a fourth quarter profit of 1.07 billion euros ($1.2 billion), well above an 873 million euro estimate in an analysts' poll compiled by Reuters.

($1 = 0.9146 euros)

($1 = 0.9150 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Alvise Armellini)