VersaBank logged higher profit in the third quarter, driven by the rapid growth of its U.S. digital lending program that helped lift total revenue.

For the three months ended July 31, the Canadian business-to-business digital bank on Thursday posted net income of 10.1 million Canadian dollars ($7.3 million), or C$0.31 a share, up from C$6.6 million, or C$0.30 a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.

Adjusted earnings were C$0.38 a share. According to FactSet, analysts were expecting C$0.44 a share.

Revenue jumped 23% C38.8 million, shy of the C$40.3 million expected by analysts. Growth was driven by the bank's Structured Receivable program in the U.S., its flagship B2B digital lending business, where total assets were US$793 million.

Net interest margin was slightly compressed by 6 basis points at 2.19%, due to higher deposit costs and asset mix shifts.

Provision for credit losses, which measures how much money a bank puts aside to cover potentially bad loans, was negligible at 0.02% as a percentage of average credit assets.