Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena swung to a first-quarter net profit of €188 million helped by falling writedowns and cost cutting. The Tuscan bank, which is 68 per cent owned by the state following last year's €8 billion rescue, had posted a loss of 169 million euros in the first quarter of 2017.

Monte dei Paschi said on Friday that net income from its lending business rose 1.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter helped by lower funding costs. Fees rose 12 percent from the last three months of 2017.

The bank, which on Thursday said it had completed a landmark €24 billion bad loan sale, said it had kicked off a process to offload up to another €4.5 billion in impaired debts this year.- Reuters