Net interest income and associated revenues were up for Live Oak Bancshares at the close of the third quarter of 2019, but net earnings were down, the company announced Wednesday.

Q3 2019 net earnings available to common shareholders were $3.9 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, as compared with earnings of $14.3 million ($0.34 per diluted share) a year ago. However, net interest income and servicing revenues for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2019 were nearly $44.4 million, an increase of over $9 million from Q3 2018’s total of $35.2 million.
 
“We continued to build franchise value through our portfolio of earning assets and exited the third quarter of 2019 with recurring revenue growth of 26% compared to the prior year,” Live Oak CEO James “Chip” Mahan said in the company’s news release. “Supporting this recurring revenue trend, our loan and lease originations totaled $562 million for the third quarter, a 49% increase from a year ago. 

"In addition to our core banking activities, we maintained our focus on changing the infrastructure of the financial industry to deliver more compelling products and services through technological innovation.”

Live Oak’s loan and lease production in the quarter just ended was also up significantly from that of the same period of 2018. The total for that key measure was $562.3 million, compared to $378.3 million for Q3 2018.

“We're very proud of almost 50% growth in the loan portfolio year-over-year,” Mahan continued. “What we affectionately call the treasure chest is up from the beginning of our strategic pivot from a couple of $100 million to almost $850 million, [an] almost 4X increase there.”

The bank’s total deposits at the end of Q3 2019 were just over $4 billion, as opposed to just shy of $3 billion a year earlier, reflecting the bank's continuing push to increase its deposit portfolio.

In Thursday’s conference call to discuss the third quarter report, Mahan also commented on the growth in value of Live Oak’s investments in other fintech companies, such as FinXact, Payrailz, DefenseStorm and Greenlight.

“So in the past two and half, three years nearly, we've invested $17 million and both on the equity and cost method we are carrying those investments little bit less than that,” he said. “Last round of financing indicates that our equity interest in those businesses are worth about $56 million, or a $40 million gain.”