Bradesco 4Q profit down 18 pct on loan slowdown

Brazil's Banco Bradesco SA said its fourth-quarter net profit fell 18 percent to 1.8 billion reals ($783 million), as the global meltdown hurt the loan business in Latin America's largest economy.

The bank, which is Brazil's largest in the private sector, posted a 2.2 billion-real ($956-million) profit for the same quarter a year ago.

Bradesco said Monday its profit for all of 2008 was 7.6 billion reals ($3.3 billion), up 5 percent from 2007 profit of 7.2 billion reals ($3.1 billion)

Revenue figures were not immediately disclosed. The bank's assets under management stood at 454.4 billion reals ($198 billion) as of Dec. 31.