By Dave Sebastian

Royal Bank of Canada said its profit for the latest quarter rose 1%, driven by higher results in its capital markets, corporate support and investor and treasury services segments.

The Toronto-based bank on Wednesday posted a profit of 3.25 billion Canadian dollars ($2.51 billion) for the fiscal fourth quarter, or C$2.23 a share, compared with C$3.21 billion, or C$2.18 a share, in the same period last year.

The company set aside C$427 million for credit losses in the three months ended Oct. 31. The provision for credit losses on loans as a percentage of average net loans and acceptances was 0.23%.

Return on common equity, or a measure of return on total capital invested in the company's business, was 16%.

The bank said profit at its personal and commercial banking segment fell to C$1.5 billion from C$1.62 billion partly due to an increase in technology and related costs, while its wealth management sector's profit fell to C$546 million from C$729 million due to the sale of the private debt business of BlueBay of C$134 million and lower net interest income. Profit at its insurance business fell to C$254 million from C$282 million.

Investor and treasury services profit rose to C$91 million from C$45 million. Profit at the company's capital markets segment rose to C$840 million from C$584 million due to higher revenue in global markets and corporate and investment banking. Its corporate support segment swung to a profit of C$13 million from a loss of C$52 million in the year-ago period due to asset/liability management services.

For the full year, profit fell 11% to C$11.44 billion due to higher provision for credit losses amid challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

12-02-20 0643ET