DUBAI- First Abu Dhabi Bank, the United Arab Emirates' biggest lender, reported a 19% fall in quarterly profit on Monday, dragged down by a double-digit drop in net interest income and higher impairment charges.

Third-quarter net profit was 2.506 billion dirhams ($682 million), versus 3.11 billion dirhams a year earlier.

CI Capital expected FAB to post a net profit of 2.5 billion dirhams, while EFG Hermes had a forecast of 2.2 billion dirhams.

Impairment charges in the quarter were 504 million dirhams, up 7% from a year earlier.

($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham)

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) ((Saeed.Azhar@thomsonreuters.com; +971 44536787; Reuters Messaging: saeed.azhar.reuters.com@reuters.net))