UPDATE 1-Brazil's Santander posts 41% jump in first-quarter profit

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SAO PAULO, April 30 (Reuters) - Santander Brasil's recurring net income jumped 41.2% year-on-year to 3.02 billion reais ($590 million) in the first quarter, the bank reported on Tuesday, highlighting it has managed to resume growth after some tough quarters.

The bottom line topped the 2.89 billion reais expected by analysts polled by LSEG, with net interest income (NII) growing both in the client and market segments.

Latin America's largest economy is a key market for Spain's Banco Santander, the parent of Santander Brasil, which reported its first quarter results earlier in the day signalling higher profitability this year.

Santander's Brazilian unit has focused in recent years on being more selective in its lending as credit conditions deteriorated, but reported some poor results while implementing the strategy.

"We have progressed as anticipated," Chief Financial Officer Gustavo Alejo said in a statement. "The breakdown of our results highlights a significant expansion in our business, with quality in our balance sheet."

Santander Brasil's provisions for loan losses fell 12.1% on a yearly basis to 6.04 billion reais, while its consolidated loan book was up 8.1% to 654.02 billion reais.

Return on average equity (ROAE), a gauge of profitability, was 14.1%, a rise of 3.5 percentage points. NII - earnings on loans minus deposit costs - jumped 14.5% to 14.79 billion reais.

($1 = 5.1175 reais) (Reporting by Gabriel Araujo and Peter Frontini; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)