Emporiki Bank yesterday reported a 26.5 percent rise in third-quarter group pretax profit after minorities, compared with the previous three months of 2003, when there was a slight fall. The country’s fourth-largest bank said third-quarter profits were 27.5 million euros ($32.2 million), slightly above market expectations. This boosted nine-month results to around 15 percent up from a year ago, to reach 83.7 million euros. “The third-quarter rise is due to an increase in interest income and commissions by almost 12 million euros in the third quarter versus the second,” a bank spokesman said, adding that trading income was boosted over the summer as the Greek bourse picked up. Nine-month net interest income rose 8.3 percent year-on-year to 446.3 million euros, with net interest margin improving to 3.6 percent from 3.1 percent a year earlier. “The increase in the pretax profits of the Group reflects the significant improvement in recurrent income,” Emporiki said in a statement.