Nonghyup Financial Group Inc. said Friday its third-quarter earnings rose nearly 3 percent on-year thanks to strong performances of its units and less money set aside to cover bad debt.

Net profit reached 182.7 billion won (US$162.2 million) in the July-September period, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier, Nonghyup Financial said in a press release.

"The on-year gain was possible because many firms under the group posted net profits and the group as a whole cut back on bad debt reserves," it said. This, it said, offset the drop in non-interest rate earnings, and one-off rise in sales and managerial expenses.

The group's return on assets stood at 0.26 and return on equity hitting 3.9 percent. These numbers represent a 0.09 percentage point and 1.48 percentage point improvement from the third quarter of last year.

The group said third quarter earnings for Nonghyup Life Insurance rose 7.2 percent on-year to 41.8 billion won.

NH Investment and Securities Co., Nonghyup Property and Casualty Insurance Co, NH Capital Corp., and NH Savings Bank all posted net profits in the third quarter.

On the downside, the net earnings of its key affiliate and banking arm, Nonghyup Bank, plunged 18 percent to 130.8 billion won.

The group, however, said in terms of risk management, the banking arm did relatively well. The bank's non-performing loan ratio fell 0.12 percentage point from a year earlier to 1.49 percent, with its loan delinquency ratio falling 0.15 percentage point to 0.79 percent.

Nonghyup Financial, meanwhile, said its total assets stood at 333.1 trillion won in the three month period, up 17.4 trillion compared to late last year.

The group said every effort will be made to reach annual net profit of 905 billion by the end of 2015. In the nine months of this year the financial group's net earnings stood at 619.7 billion won. (Yonhap)