MOSCOW, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Sberbank, Russia's largest bank by assets, said on Friday its net profit for January-August fell by 0.5 percent to 252.6 billion roubles ($6.8 billion) year-on-year.

Sberbank, reporting under Russian accounting standards which are viewed as an indicator of its performance according to international standards, said net profit was down due to accounting changes following new central bank regulations.

"Excluding the effect of the one-off change in accounting, net profit would have amounted to 261.6 billion roubles, up by 3.1 percent versus 253.8 billion roubles in January-August 2013," it said in a statement.

The state-controlled Sberbank said its net interest income was up 22.5 percent, while net fee and commission income grew by 22.4 percent year-on-year.

Total provision charges were up to 189.2 billion roubles versus 74.1 billion roubles a year ago, the bank said. (1 US dollar = 36.9500 Russian rouble) (Reporting by Katya Golubkova, editing by Elizabeth Piper)