You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: I'm now on Slide 5.
For the third quarter, net income from continuing operations was $0.65 per common share.
Our results reflected a net benefit from our provision for credit losses, which was largely driven by our strong credit metrics and positive economic outlook.
Importantly, we delivered positive operating leverage this quarter.
And as Chris said, we expect to deliver positive operating leverage for the year.
Total revenues were up 8% compared to the same period last year.
We had year-over-year growth in both net interest income and noninterest income.
Our return on tangible common equity for the quarter was 18.6%.
Turning to Slide 6.
There were two major items that impacted loan growth this quarter, PPP loans and the sale of our indirect auto portfolio.
Average PPP loans declined $3.3 billion this quarter as we help clients take advantage of loan forgiveness.
We also sold our indirect auto portfolio last month.
The sale impacted our third-quarter average results by approximately $800 million and $3.3 billion on an ending basis.
Average loans were down from the year-ago period, reflecting the reduction in PPP balances and lower commercial line utilization.
Compared to the prior quarter, average loans were down 0.7%.
Adjusting for the sale of the indirect auto portfolio, our loans were up approximately $100 million on average and up over $1 billion on an ending basis.
Adding to the comments on our core loan growth, adjusting for both the indirect auto loan sale and PPP loans our linked quarter total loan growth would have been 4.3%.
We continued to see strong consumer loan growth driven by Laurel Road and consumer mortgage.
On the commercial side, we were pleased to see a slight uptick in utilization.
Continuing on to Slide 7.
Average deposits totaled $147 billion for the third quarter of 2021, up to $12 billion or 9% compared to the year-ago period and up 2% from the prior quarter.
The linked quarter and year-ago comparisons reflect growth in both commercial and consumer balances.
The growth was partially offset by continued and expected decline in time deposits.
Total interest-bearing deposit costs came down one basis point from the second quarter, following a two basis point decline last quarter.
We continue to have a strong, stable core deposit base with consumer deposits accounting for approximately 60% of our total deposit mix.
Turning to Slide 8.
Taxable equivalent net interest income was $1.025 billion for the third quarter of 2021, compared to $1.006 billion a year ago and $1.023 billion from the prior quarter.
Our net interest margin was 2.47% for the third-quarter 2021, compared to 2.62% for the same period last year and 2.52% for the prior quarter.
Both net interest income and net interest margin were meaningfully impacted by the significant growth in our balance sheet compared to a year-ago period.
The larger balance sheet benefited net interest income but reduced net interest margin due to the significant increase in liquidity driven by strong deposit inflows.
Compared to the prior quarter, net interest income increased $2 million and the margin declined five basis points.
Lower interest-bearing deposit costs and the benefit of the day count were partially offset by lower-earning asset yields and continued elevated liquidity levels.
For the quarter, total loan fees from PPP loans were $45 million, compared to $50 million last quarter.
We've also included in the appendix additional detail on our investment portfolio and our asset-liability positioning.
In the third quarter, our sensitivity to rising rates moved higher and we ended the period with over $25 billion in cash and short-term investments.
Moving on to Slide 9.
We continue to see strong growth in our fee-based businesses, which have benefited from our ongoing investments.
Noninterest income was $797 million for the third quarter of 2021, compared to $681 million for the year-ago period and $750 million in the second quarter.
Compared to the year-ago period, noninterest income increased 17%.
We had a record third quarter for investment banking and debt placement fees, which reached $235 million driven by broad-based growth across the platform, including strong M&A fees.
Additionally, corporate services income increased $18 million and commercial mortgage fees increased to $16 million.
Offsetting this growth was lower consumer mortgage fees due to a lower gain on sale margin.
Compared to the second quarter, noninterest income increased by $47 million.
The largest driver of this quarterly increase was the record third-quarter investment banking and debt placement fees.
I'm now on Slide 10.
We total noninterest expense for the quarter was $1.112 billion, compared to $1.037 billion last year and $1.076 billion in the prior quarter.
Our expense levels reflect higher production-related incentives and the investments we have made to drive future growth.
The increase from the year-ago period primarily reflects higher incentive and stock-based compensation attributed to our higher fee production and Keys increased stock price.
The quarter-over-quarter increase in expenses was primarily driven by two areas: the first, personnel expense related to one additional day of salary expense in the quarter and slightly higher employee benefits; the second was an increase in other expense of $18 million, largely related pension settlement charge and higher charitable contributions.
Now moving to Slide 11.
Overall credit quality continues to outperform expectations.
For the third quarter, net charge-offs were $29 million or 11 basis points of average loans.
Net charge-offs in the current quarter included $22 million related to the sale of the indirect auto loan portfolio.
Our provision for credit losses was a net benefit of $107 million.
This was determined based on our continued strong credit metrics as well as our outlook for the overall economy and loan production.
Nonperforming loans were $554 million this quarter or 56 basis points of period-end loans, a decline of $140 million or 20% from the prior quarter.
Now on to Slide 12.
We ended the third quarter with a common equity tier one ratio of 9.6%, which places us above our targeted range of nine to 9.5%.
This provides us with sufficient capacity to continue to support our customers and their borrowing needs and return capital to our shareholders.
Importantly, we continue to return capital to our shareholders in accordance with our capital priorities.
We repurchased $593 million of common shares during the quarter our board of directors approved a third-quarter dividend at $0.185 per common share.
Of the 593 million in common share repurchases, $468 million were related to the initial settlement of our accelerated share repurchase program, representing 80% of the $585 million authorization.
The remaining $125 million were purchased in the open market.
The remaining 20% of the ASR will be settled in the fourth quarter.
On Slide 13, similar to prior years, we provided guidance for the fourth quarter relative to our third-quarter results.
Guidance ranges are listed at the bottom of the slide.
Importantly, using midpoints of this outlook would buy PPNR is at or above our full-year 2021 outlook provided last quarter.
We have adjusted our guidance to reflect our strong third-quarter performance especially in our fee-based businesses as well as the continued strength in our credit quality.
Average loans will be up low single digits, excluding the impact of the sale of our indirect auto portfolio.
We expect continued growth in both our core commercial and consumer balances.
Average deposits should remain relatively stable in the fourth quarter.
Net interest income is expected to be down low single digits, reflecting lower PPP forgiveness in the fourth quarter and the impact of the auto loan sale.
Noninterest come should be relatively stable off our record third-quarter performance with momentum in most of our fee-based businesses through year-end.
We will also benefit from what we expect to be another record year for our investment banking business.
We expect noninterest expense to be down low single digits in the fourth quarter.
Moving on to credit quality.
We expect our net charge-offs to be below 20 basis points for the fourth quarter.
Credit trends were strong in the third quarter, and we expect a strong finish to the year.
And our guidance for our GAAP tax rate has remained unchanged at 20%.
Finally, shown at the bottom of the slide are our long-term targets, which remain unchanged.
We expect to continue to make progress on these targets by maintaining our moderate risk profile in improving our productivity and efficiency, which will drive returns.
Overall, it was another strong quarter, and we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our commitments to all of our stakeholders.

user
compname reports third quarter 2021 net income of $616 million, or $0.65 per diluted common share.
net loan charge-offs for q3 of 2021 totaled $29 million, or 0.11% of average total loans.
q3 provision for credit losses was net benefit of $107 million, including a $136 million reserve release for q3 versus an expense of $160 million in q3 2020.
credit quality remained strong this quarter.
qtrly total revenue $1,822 million, up 8%.

assistant