Intesa Sanpaolo profits rise 3 percent

MILAN (AP) — The CEO of Italy's second-largest bank Intesa Sanpaolo SpA expressed confidence in Italy's ability to navigate the debt crisis as the bank reported a 3 percent increase in third-quarter net income.

The Milan-based bank reported third-quarter net income Tuesday of euro527 million ($724 million) against euro510 million a year earlier, as it recorded lower losses on loans and higher net interest.

CEO Corrado Passera told an analyst conference call that the bank will use a euro1.1 billion one-off gain in the quarter to partly write down the value of its Greek bonds. Banks are in the process of agreeing how to reduce the value of their Greek holdings by 50 percent as …