Crédit Agricole today reported a more than twelvefold gain in quarterly profit from the same time last year when it was hit by the situation in Greece and Italy-related provisions.
France's third biggest bank said that net income in the three months to the end of June rose to €696m from €56m a year earlier, exceeding analysts estimates of €514m.
The bank's chief xecutive Jean-Paul Chifflet said he expected the bank - which reported a nearly €4 billion loss for 2012 on costs related to its exit from Greece and asset writedowns - to deliver a "significantly positive" result for the full year.
In a sign that finding growth in a sluggish French economy remains a challenge, however, the bank reported a 0.9% drop in revenue to €4.39 billion.
Results were mixed at the lender's retail units, while profit at its investment bank jumped 38%, helped by fixed-income capital markets, following in the footsteps of similarly strong results at rival Société Générale last week.
Crédit Agricole last week finalised the long-awaited sale of 80.1% of its Asian CLSA brokerage unit for $842m, one of a series of moves over the past year aimed at reversing a one-time expansion binge into investment banking and foreign markets.
The bank will book a $1.15 billion gain on the sale - including the original sale of a 19.9% stake in July 2012 - in the third quarter.
