Mortgage production quadrupled, fee income grew across the board and deferrals dropped to 2% of loans from 30% in the second quarter.
Let's turn to Page 4.
P2P volume is up 40%, digital money transfers have increased 55%, online loan payments are up 87%, retail and commercial photo deposits have doubled, and we scheduled more than 34,000 COVID-safe appointments with customers through our online mobile tool, almost all of them in the second and third quarters.
Let's start on Page 5 to talk about our financial results.
We reported earnings per share of $0.50, a 28% increase from the second quarter and more than four times the year-ago quarter.
The effective tax rate was 19% compared to 25% in the second quarter.
Total core revenues were $127 million, excluding one-time interest recoveries from acquired Scotiabank loans.
Net interest income of $99 million was level with the second quarter, while fee income rose 19% to $27 million.
Net interest margin was 4.3%.
When you exclude interest recoveries in both quarters, net interest margin was 4.28% versus 4.5% in the second quarter.
Non-interest expenses of $83 million fell more than $2 million compared to the second quarter and that number includes merger and COVID-related costs.
Excluding those in both periods, the efficiency ratio improved 369 basis points compared to the second quarter as increased operating leverage from the Scotiabank acquisition began to kick in.
Customers' deposits grew more than $212 million from June 30 to $8.5 billion.
Due to the increased deposits, as well as repayments of loans and securities, cash increased $383 million to $2.3 billion.
As a result, total assets grew $84 million to $10 billion.
Loan production was strong, totaling $458 million.
Excluding Paycheck Protection Program loans in the second quarter and third quarter, production increased $228 million.
The allowance coverage increased to 3.64%, excluding PPP loans.
Capital continued to build, shareholders' equity increased to $1.06 billion, all regulatory capital ratios remained significantly above requirements for a well-capitalized institution.
The CET1 ratio was 12.55% on September 30, 2020.
Please turn to Page 6.
These increased $0.50 in the third quarter to $16.51.
Efficiency ratio improved to 65.69% on a reported basis.
On an adjusted basis, it was 62.17%.
Return on average assets was 1.11%, and return on average tangible common stockholders equity was 12.23% and 12.10% on an adjusted basis.
Please turn to Page 7 for our operational highlights.
Average loan balances declined $54 million from the second quarter, reflecting net loan repayment in mortgage, commercial and consumer; auto increased.
Average core deposits, excluding brokered, grew $524 million from the second quarter.
End of period core deposits are now up more than $1 billion from the end of the last year, that is on top of the $2.8 billion that came with the Scotiabank acquisition.
Loan generation, excluding PPP loans, by order of magnitude was driven by $174 million in commercial lending, $156 million in auto, $94 million in residential mortgage and $24 million in consumer.
Loan yield at 6.57% declined 40 basis points from the second quarter.
Non-PCD loan yield declined only 16 basis points.
The cost of core deposits declined 5 basis points to 56 basis points.
Please turn to Page 8 to review credit quality.
The net charge-off rate declined 30 basis points from the second quarter, mainly due to declines in auto.
Provision declined $4 million, largely due to a decline in COVID-related provisioning.
The non-performing loan rate increased 52 basis points quarter-over-quarter, mainly mortgage and auto.
As for our customer relief program, if you recall, as of June 30, we had processed relief for more than 44,000 retail customers for $1.4 billion or 32% of our retail loans.
For our commercial customers, we had processed relief on $685 million in loans or about 27% of our commercial portfolio.
As I mentioned earlier, our deferrals are now down to 2% of total loans.
Most of that relates to about $112 million of commercial loans, mostly long-standing solid customer relationships in the hospitality industry.
Please turn to Page 9.
The allowance for loan and lease losses increased $2.6 million from the second quarter and is now equal to 3.48% of total loans.
Excluding SBA guaranteed PPP loans, the allowance was 16 basis points higher than in the second quarter.
Please turn to Page 10.
Our CET capital ratio is now up 164 basis points since last year after the Scotiabank acquisition.
Please turn to Page 11.
We have $8.5 billion of sticky core deposits with an excess of more than $1 billion giving us significant amount of dry powder.

Summary:
We reported earnings per share of $0.50, a 28% increase from the second quarter and more than four times the year-ago quarter.
Total core revenues were $127 million, excluding one-time interest recoveries from acquired Scotiabank loans.
These increased $0.50 in the third quarter to $16.51.