Bank of Nova Scotia reports weaker fourth-quarter profit

TORONTO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada's No. 3 lender, reported a weaker fourth-quarter profit on Friday after taking a previously announced charge related to soured bets in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The lender, known as Scotiabank, earned C$1.4 billion ($1.23 billion), or C$1.10 per share, in the quarter ended Oct. 31. This compared with a profit of C$1.7 billion, or C$1.29 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding notable items, the bank said it had earned C$1.32 a share. Analysts had expected C$1.40.

Scotiabank had warned it November it expected to book a pretax charge of C$451 million. It had said the moves would reduce earnings by about 28 Canadian cents a share.

($1 = 1.1405 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson Editing by W Simon)