Commercial and residential loan growth boosted earnings at United Financial Bancorp during the third quarter, even as debit card fraud and the planned rollout of EMV cards sent expenses upward, company leadership said today.

The Glastonbury, Connecticut-based holding company for United Bank posted $13.4 million in net income, compared with $13.3 million in the prior quarter and $10 million in the year-ago period.

Interest income totaled $49.6 million, compared with $47.2 million a year ago. The company attributed this increase to a growth in earning assets of about $163.4 million, or 3 percent, during the third quarter, and a $220.1 million, or 4 percent, increase in average interest-earning assets.

That growth, in turn, was mainly bolstered by growth in commercial loans, which increased $104 million, or 16 percent on an annualized basis, during the third quarter.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, commercial loan activity consisted of a $114 million (6 percent) increase in the commercial real estate portfolio and a $5 million (3 percent) increase in the commercial construction portfolio, and was partially offset by a $15 million, or 2 percent, decrease in the commercial business portfolio.

Responding to an investor’s question about whether the bank would seek to recruit new commercial lending talent, CEO William H. W. Crawford IV said the bank was presently focused on “building consistency” more than anything.

“We are always looking for great talent, but the good thing is the teams we have right now have really good pipelines and are really hitting their stride,” he said.

Residential mortgage originations increased $303 million, or 118 percent, on a year-over-year basis to $559 million in the third quarter. Purchase mortgage activity accounted for 70 percent of that production, and 46 percent of the quarter’s production was comprised of adjustable rate mortgages.

Deposits increased to $4.3 billion on Sept. 30 from $4 billion in the year-ago period, representing a 5.8 percent year-over-year increase.

Total assets increased 2.9 percent year-over-year to $5.8 billion.

Meanwhile, non-interest expenses increased $1.5 million, or 5 percent, from the prior quarter. In a conference call discussing the company’s third quarter results, CFO Eric Newell attributed that increase to three primary factors: technology consulting expenses that the bank expects to pay off in the long term, costs associated with the company’s planned fourth quarter deployment of EMV-compliant debit cards and increases in losses associated with debit card fraud.

During the third quarter, the company decreased its provision for loan losses by 27 percent, or $1.2 million, to $3.3 million from the prior quarter, largely due to reduced expansion of the covered portfolio over that period.

Net charge-offs in the third quarter increased by $372,000 to $1.3 million, or 0.12 percent annualized as a percentage of average loans outstanding, from $904,000, or 0.09 percent annualized as a percentage of average loans outstanding, in the linked quarter.

Total non-interest income decreased by $1.6 million, or 17 percent, to $7.8 million for the three months ended Sept. 30 from $9.4 million in the prior quarter. United said in its earnings release that that figure was most impacted by a $733,000 decline in mortgage banking activities income and a $706,000 decline in other income – both of which were related to the decline in long-term interest rates during the third quarter.