Santander profit falls 35% - FT.com Net profit at Spain's Santander, the eurozone's biggest bank by market capitalisation, fell 35 per cent last year to €5.35bn from €8.18bn in 2010 as the Spanish property market collapse and the eurozone debt crisis continued to erode earnings. Santander released results on Tuesday showing it barely made a profit in the final quarter of last year - net profit was €47m compared to €2.10bn a year earlier - after it set aside a €1.81bn fourth-quarter gross charge to clean up bad property loans in Spain. Over the year as a whole, the bank made total net extraordinary provisions of €3.18bn, largely because it is anticipating new provisioning rules likely to be announced on Friday by the centre-right government that took power in Spain in December. Of the total, €1.53bn came from realised capital gains, and €1.67bn from the fourth-quarter charge on a net basis. The Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy, prime minister, has signalled it will increase provisioning requirements for bad and doubtful property assets from 30 per cent of book value to more than 50 per cent. Santander said it had already raised coverage for repossessed property from 31 per cent to 50 per cent with the latest provisions. Unlike some smaller Spanish lenders, Santander has remained profitable through more than three years of crisis in Europe because of its exposure to overseas markets. For the first time, Latin America accounted for more than half of group profits as earnings from Spain, Portugal and the UK fell sharply. Santander said it had realised capital gains by selling some assets "in a selective manner" without affecting the generation of pre-provision profit. Net interest income rose 5.5 per cent to €30.82bn.