11.   Kulmburg said Hypobank expects operating profit to be better in the second half, not least because it may reduce risk provisions.

12.   Operating profit is before tax but including risk provisions and trading income.

13.   Operating earnings are after taxes and before risk provisions.

14.   Schmidt said the bank had increased risk provisions even as economic recovery had lowered the risk of default.

15.   Speaking to financial journalists in Frankfurt, Sarrazin declined to give an exact figure for the risk provisions.

16.   The bank gave no explanation for the increase in operating profit, which is after risk provisions and before taxes.

17.   The promise comes after The European Investment Bank said it was exercising a risk provision by calling in its loans.

18.   The sharp increase in risk provisions in the second half last year and higher taxes this year could weigh on full-year profit, Hein said.

19.   But he warned against extrapolating year-end figures from the quarterly improvement, based largely on an increase in trading revenues and a drop in risk provisions.

20.   The bank improved its bottom line, reducing its risk provisions by nearly half, despite the rising number of bankruptcies in Germany.