Third-quarter net income at the wealth, brokerage and retirement arm of US-listed Wells Fargo, which includes the Abbot Downing service for ultra-wealthy clients, rose to $550 million from $450 million in the same period a year ago and up from $544 million in the previous quarter.

Third-quarter net income at the wealth, brokerage and retirement arm of US-listed Wells Fargo, which includes the Abbot Downing service for ultra-wealthy clients, rose to $550 million from $450 million in the same period a year ago and up from $544 million in the previous quarter.

The division logged total revenue of $3.553 billion in Q3, up from £3.307 billion a year earlier. The wealth business had client assets of $219 billion at the end of the third quarter, up 7 per cent from the prior year.

Non-interest expenses decreased $5 million from the prior quarter, driven by lower deferred compensation plan expenses (offset in trading revenue), largely offset by increased broker commissions and non-personnel expenses.

For the San Francisco-headquartered banking group as a whole, it reported net income of $5.7 billion, or $1.02 per diluted common share, for third quarter 2014, up from $5.6 billion, or $0.99 per share, from the third quarter 2013. For the first nine months of 2014, net income was $17.3 billion, or $3.08 per share, up from $16.3 billion, or $2.89 per share, from the same period in 2013.

“This was a strong quarter for Wells Fargo and again demonstrated the benefits of our diversified business model. Despite the low interest rate environment, revenue and pre-tax pre-provision profit increased linked quarter, and we continued to operate within our target ranges for ROA, ROE, efficiency ratio, and capital return to shareholders,” John Shrewsberry, chief financial officer, said.

The banking group had an efficiency ratio at the end of the quarter of 57.5 per cent; a return on assets of 1.4 per cent, and had a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio under Basel III capital rules of 11.6 per cent.