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'll begin on Slide 3.
In the third quarter, we reported earnings per share of $1.30 and generated total revenue of $5.9 billion.
Our linked quarter pre-tax pre-provision net revenue growth of 2.7% was driven by continued momentum across our fee businesses, growth in average loan balances, and continued focus on expense management resulting in positive operating leverage.
We released $310 million of loan loss reserves this quarter, supported by our outlook on the economy and better-than-expected credit quality metrics.
Our book value per share totaled $32.22 at September 30, which was 1.5% higher than June 30.
Our CET1 ratio was 10.2% at September 30.
Slide 4 provides key third quarter performance metrics, including a return on tangible common equity of over 20%.
Slide 5 highlights strong trends in digital engagement.
On Slide 6, we are providing an initial information about our Business Banking and payment relationships, which we plan to update every quarter.
Our complete payments ecosystem is a competitive advantage for us and provides a number of cyclical and secular growth opportunities.
Over the next few years, we believe there is a significant potential to expand and deepen relationships within this ecosystem.
Our starting point is that, we have about 1.1 million Business Banking relationships, which we define as businesses with under $25 million in revenue.
Currently, about half of our payments customers of this size have a Business Banking product and just under one-third of our Business Banking customers have a payments product.
The opportunity is to both increase the number of Business Banking relationships and to deepen these relationships by connecting our banking customers with our payments products and services, and connecting our payments customers with our banking products and services.
As we discussed previously, we believe we can grow our small business relationships by 15% to 20% and related revenue by 25% to 30% over the next few years.
Average loans increased 0.8% compared with the second quarter, driven by growth in other retail loans, primarily installment loans, as well as growth in credit card and residential mortgages.
This growth was partially offset by lower commercial loan balances which was impacted by lower levels of PPP loans.
At September 30, PPP loan balances totaled $2.4 billion compared to $4.9 billion at June 30.
Excluding PPP loans, third quarter average loans grew by 1.8% on a linked quarter basis.
Turning to Slide 8, average deposits increased 0.5% compared with the second quarter and 6.4% compared with a year ago.
On both a linked quarter and year-over-year basis, we continued to benefit from favorable mix shift as average non-interest bearing deposits increased while higher cost time deposits declined.
Slide 9 shows credit quality trends.
Non-performing assets declined on both a linked quarter and year-over-year basis and our net charge-off ratio hit a record low of 20 basis points.
Our reserve release was $310 million this quarter, primarily reflecting strong credit quality metrics.
Our allowance for credit losses as of September 30 totaled $6.3 billion, or 2.1% of loans.
The allowance level reflected our best estimate of the economic outlook and trajectory of credit quality within the portfolios.
Slide 10 provides an earnings summary.
In the third quarter of 2021, we earned $1.30 per diluted share.
These results include a reserve release of $310 million.
Turning to Slide 11, net interest income on a fully taxable equivalent basis of $3.2 billion increased by 1% compared with the second quarter.
The growth was primarily driven by higher loan fees associated with the Paycheck Protection Program.
Excluding PPP-related fees, net interest income would have been stable, reflecting lower loan yields and the impact of change in loan mix, offset by the beneficial impact of core loan growth, lower premium amortization, and an additional day in the quarter.
Our net interest margin was stable compared with the second quarter.
Slide 12 highlights trends in non-interest income.
Compared with a year ago, non-interest income declined 0.7% as decreases in mortgage revenue and commercial products revenue more than offset strong growth in payments revenue, trust and investment management fees, deposit service charges, and treasury management fees.
On a linked quarter basis, non-interest income increased 2.8% reflecting higher-than-expected payments revenue and a 20% increase in mortgage revenue driven by growth in production volume and related gain on sale margins, as well as higher loan sales.
Slide 13 provides information on our payment services business.
Our payments business continues to benefit from improving economic conditions and spend activity.
In the third quarter, sales volumes for both our credit card and our merchant processing businesses exceeded the pandemic compared period in 2019, while CPS volume was about in line.
As expected, prepaid card volume declined in the third quarter as the impact of government-related stimulus continues to diminish.
The reduced prepaid volume resulted in a slight decline in credit and debit card revenue on a linked quarter basis.
However, corporate payment revenues increased by 13%, which was better-than-expected, driven by improving business spend activity.
Merchant processing revenue increased by 4.8% due to higher merchant and equipment fees, as well as higher sales volumes.
Turning to Slide 14, non-interest expense increased 1.2% compared to the second quarter.
This increase primarily reflected higher revenue-related compensation and performance-based incentives.
Slide 15 highlights our capital position.
Our common equity Tier 1 capital ratio at September 30 was 10.2%, which increased slightly compared to June 30.
At the beginning of the third quarter, we suspended our share buyback program due to our recent announcement that we have agreed to acquire MUFG's Union Bank.
We expect that our share repurchase program will be deferred until the second quarter of 2022.
After the closing of the acquisition, we expect to operate at a CET1 capital ratio between our target ratio and 9%.
As PPP winds down and we approach the end of the forgiveness period, we expect PPP fees to decline $60 million to $70 million in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter.
Excluding the impact of PPP fees, we expect fully taxable equivalent net interest income to be relatively stable on a linked quarter basis.
We expect PPP to be immaterial to both net interest income and the net interest margin in 2022.
In the fourth quarter, we expect total payments revenue trends to continue to strengthen, driven by improving sales volumes.
However, the fourth quarter is typically seasonally lower than the third quarter, which affects linked quarter comparisons.
In the fourth quarter, we expect to see a seasonal increase in amortization of tax-advantaged investments of approximately $60 million, as well as some seasonal impacts in marketing and in business investments.
Credit quality remains strong.
Over the next few quarters, we expect the net charge-off ratio to remain lower than normal.
For the full-year of 2021, we expect our taxable equivalent tax rate to be approximately 22%.
I'll hand it back to Andy for closing remarks.
To summarize our third quarter results, we're positive on several fronts, highlighted by a solid growth in core loans, good fee revenue momentum, and strong credit quality.
We are finishing off the year in a strong position heading into 2022 and we're excited about the many organic growth opportunities we see across the franchise, supported by our continued investment in people, digital, technology, and data analytics.
Our three payments businesses will continue to benefit from the improved spend activity, particularly as consumer and business travel recovers toward pre-pandemic levels.
More importantly, we believe our secular growth initiatives aimed at connecting payments with banking provide a meaningful potential for market share gains over the immediate and longer-term.
Our Business Banking initiatives are still in the early innings but we're gaining traction and our partnership with State Farm continues to evolve and grow.
We are encouraged by the results we're seeing.
Aside from our organic growth opportunities, our recently announced acquisition of Union Bank provides a platform to achieve cost synergies, expand our distribution network in demographically attractive West Coast markets, and leverage our broad product set in leading digital capabilities across a loyal but underpenetrated customer base.
All of this will enable us to accelerate revenue and earnings growth, and continue to deliver the industry-leading returns on equity that our shareholders have come to expect.
We'll now open up the call to Q&A.

user
u.s. bancorp q3 earnings per share $1.30.
q3 earnings per share $1.30.
q3 revenue $5.9 billion.
us bancorp - allowance for credit losses declined $310 million during quarter given improving economic outlook and credit trends.
us bancorp - cet1 capital ratio increased to 10.2% at september 30, 2021.

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