MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's Sabadell on Thursday said its third-quarter net profit rose 8% from the same period in 2023 on lower provisions and stable lending income at a moment when it is trying to fend off a takeover bid from rival BBVA.

The country's fourth-largest bank in terms of market value reported a quarterly record net profit of 503 million euros, above the 447 million euros expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Spanish banks are mainly retail lenders and have benefited from higher costs of loans, carrying floating rates, that are passed on to customers while they kept a lid on rates paid to savers.

But declines in the Euribor, the benchmark banks use to set the price for mortgage loans, are starting to influence lending rates.

Against that backdrop, its net interest income, the difference between earnings on loans and deposit costs, in the quarter still rose 0.9% year-on-year to 1.25 billion euros, in line with analysts' forecasts. NII however fell 0.7% against the previous quarter.

($1 = 0.9202 euros)

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado, editing by Inti Landauro)