Royal Bank of Canada is reporting higher profits for the second-quarter ended April 30.

The bank says its diversified earnings base and U.S. acquisitions continued to add to the bottom line.

Net income was $710 million, or $1.01 a share, using U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. That is up 14% from $624 million, or 95¢, a year ago.

The bank says gross revenues were $3.9 billion, up 12% $3.5 billion last yea, largely reflecting contributions from recent U.S. acquisitions, which led RBC Investments and RBC Banking to generate double-digit revenue growth over a year ago. Expenses rose 11%, reflecting recent U.S. acquisitions.

Return on equity fell to 16.8% from 19.2%.

Loan loss provisions were $328 million, up from $286 million from the first quarter, and up from the year-ago quarter.

The bank also says it will renew its normal course issuer bid to buy back up to 20 million common shares, or about 3% of its outstanding common shares.

Commenting on the quarter’s results, Gordon Nixon, President & CEO, says, “Despite continuing challenges in capital markets-related businesses, our net income was up to $710 million this quarter, reflecting our diversified earnings base, improvements in the profitability of our recent U.S. acquisitions and continued focus on cost management.”

The bank’s capital ratios strengthened from last quarter. The Tier 1 capital ratio and the Total capital ratio rose to 9% and 12.6% from 8.8% and 12.3%, respectively.