Third-Quarter Profit Rises 61% at Chase Manhattan Corp.

Chase Manhattan Corp., the nation’s third-largest banking company, said Monday that its third-quarter profit jumped 61% from a year ago.

The increase was at the upper end of the double-digit gains reported for the third quarter by several other large banking companies.

Banking companies have generally benefited from lower interest rates, which have reduced what it costs to obtain lendable funds. They have not trimmed their own lending rates as rapidly.

Chase, parent of the nation’s third-largest bank, Chase Manhattan of New York, said its net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $149 million, compared to a profit of $93 million a year ago.

For the first nine months, Chase said its profit rose 44.8% to $414 million, compared to last year’s $286 million.

The company said its gains in income from both interest- and non-interest-bearing activities more than offset an increase in non-operating expenses in the quarter.

Its latest results were favorably affected by about $8 million after taxes due to changes in New York tax laws.

The results also included about $15 million in pretax income from past-due interest payments from Argentine borrowers resulting from a recent debt restructuring.

Chase noted that the profit was its largest quarterly profit ever and said that its earnings for the past nine months already had exceeded the $406 million that it posted for all of 1984.

The company said its provision for possible loan losses was $110 million in the third quarter, compared to $125 million a year earlier. Those provisions directly reduce earnings.

Its loan-loss reserve was $872 million, or 1.42% of total loans outstanding, on Sept. 30, compared to $738 million, or 1.17%, a year earlier.

Chase’s assets totaled $87.8 billion on Sept. 30, up slightly from $87.5 billion a year ago.