(Reuters). Citigroup Inc (NYSE) beat the market’s estimates of third quarter profit Thursday as it released loan losses reserves, and earned a windfall from investment banking advice and equity underwriting fees.

The net income for the three months ending Sept. 30 jumped 48%, or $2.15/share, to $4.6 Billion, or $3.1 Billion, an increase of $1.36/share a year ago. According to Refinitiv IBES data, analysts had predicted a profit average of $1.65 per shares.

Bank profits rose after it decided to eliminate $1.16 billion worth of losses reserves that were built up during the Pandemic. These loss reserves had been created in response to potentially bad loans. Citigroup added $436 Million to its reserves a year before.

In addition to a 39% increase in investment banking revenues, $1.9 billion was also achieved. This offset a 16% drop in fixed-income revenue that had fallen from the previous year due to unprecedented volatility.

Lower net interest revenues and higher expenses impacted results. This was also true for customers who borrowed their stimulus money to repay their credit cards loans.

Jane Fraser, Chief Executive Officer of the company said that $4.6 billion was a good amount considering the current environment.

As the company invested more in technology and staff to enhance its control systems, operating expenses rose by 5% to $11.5billion. This was due to regulators demanding that it comply with their demands.

The net interest revenue fell 1% compared to a year ago, but it was 2% higher than the second quarter. This suggests an end of the downward trend started by the pandemic and when the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates to almost zero. Many borrowers also paid down their loans.

Citigroup’s Treasury and Trade Solutions businesses were also affected by lower interest rates. The business saw its revenue drop 4% despite collecting more fees and seeing growth in trading.

North American revenue from Citi-branded Cards declined by 1%, while that from retail cards fell by 6%.

These results include the effect of the earlier announced loss of Australia’s consumer banking business.