UPDATE 1-Pekao's Q4 net profit drops 15 pct on bad loans

WARSAW, March 3 (Reuters) - Pekao, Poland's top corporate lender, reported a 15-percent drop in its fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday, slightly better than expected, on fresh provisions for non-performing loans.

The bank, controlled by Italy's UniCredit, said it earned 612 million zlotys in the last three months of last year, which compared with a forecast of 601 million zlotys given by analysts in a Reuters poll.

In the full year its net profit fell by nearly a third to 2.41 billion zlotys.

Pekao was one of the more conservative lenders in Poland, but the economic slowdown has still weighed on its clients and their ability to pay back loans. It took 138 million zlotys in provisions, less than the 172 million forecast.

Net interest income fell 11 percent as the bank also suffered from a prolonged fight among Polish lenders for customer deposits as interest rates moved to all-time lows.

Shares in Pekao have fallen about 2 percent this year, in line with Warsaw's banking index.

(Reporting by Chris Borowski; Editing by Greg Mahlich) Keywords: PEKAO/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.