Strong loan growth helped boost American Savings Bank’s earnings 7.5 percent in the third quarter.

The state’s third-largest bank said today that a 7.9 percent increase in loans helped lift profits to $15.3 million from $14.2 million in the year-earlier quarter. Its earnings were boosted by $2 million less that the bank needed to set aside for potential loan losses, a $1 million net gain on the sale of its credit card portfolio and $1 million in higher fee income from other financial products.

HEI Industries Inc., the parent company of American Savings and the state’s largest utility, will release its full earnings report on Nov. 7.