Fifth Third Bancorp reported second quarter 2013 net income available to common shareholders after preferred dividends, was $594 million compared net income of $376 million in the second quarter of 2012.

The bank said Q2/13 results included an increase in noninterest income of $180 million and a corresponding decrease in noninterest expense of $146 million compared to the same quarter in 2012. The increase in noninterest income included a $242 million pre-tax gain on the sale of shares of its Vantiv payment processing subsidiary and a $76 million positive valuation adjustment on the Vantiv warrant. Net interest income in Q2/13 was $885 million, down from $903 million a year earlier.

Commenting on credit trends, the company said Q2/13 net charge-offs of $112 million (0.51% of loans and leases) were down from NCOs of $181 million (0.88% of loans and leases)in Q2/12 with a Q2/13 provision charge of $64 million, down from $71 million in Q2/12.

Fifth Third said commercial net charge-offs were $45 million, or 0.36%, the lowest ratio since the third quarter of 2007.

“Second quarter results were again strong for Fifth Third,” said Kevin T. Kabat, CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp. “We posted our tenth consecutive quarter of sequential average portfolio loan growth, driven by C&I loan growth of 3%. Credit trends continued to improve and we saw continued, broad based improvement in nearly every key credit metric.”

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