Banco Popular on Monday kicked off the third-quarter reporting season for Spanish banks, unveiling a sharp year-on-year drop in net profits for the nine months to the end of September.

The bank, the country’s third-largest listed lender, said profits for the period were down 32.1 per cent at €651.2m ($977m), on revenues up 10 per cent at just over €3bn. Net interest income beat analysts expectations, climbing 11.6 per cent to €2.2bn.