BBVA's Q1 hits forecasts despite Spanish slowdown

By Jane Barrett

MADRID (Reuters) - BBVA (BBVA.MC: Quote, Profile, Research), Spain's second-largest bank, hit forecasts with a 14.9 percent rise in net profit on Monday as growth in Latin America and corporate banking made up for a lending slowdown at home.

BBVA's recurring net profit was 1.44 billion euros ($2.3 billion), compared with a forecast of 1.42 billion euros in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.

Analysts welcomed the results as uneventful relative to the billion-euro writedowns at other global banks.

"It's not a big headline, but the lack of a headline is the headline," said Keefe, Bruyette and Woods analyst Antonio Ramirez.

BBVA shares have fallen about 14 percent so far this year, in line with the DJ Stoxx index of European banking stocks . By 1439 GMT, the stock was up 2.2 percent at 14.77 euros, topping a 1.3 percent rise in European banks.

Results at BBVA's smaller domestic rivals have been hit by a drop in lending growth and a rise in bad loans as Spain's economy and property sector slow after a decade-long boom.

Net profit at BBVA's Spain and Portugal arm grew 18 percent to 698 million euros -- a bigger jump than its domestic rivals have reported -- which analysts put down to BBVA's management and ability to pass higher funding costs on to customers.

BBVA's Iberian retail lending growth shrank to 8.5 percent, against rates of over 20 percent in the last few years, while non-performing loans (NPLs) were 0.93 percent of the total.