First Hawaiian Bank’s loans, deposits and assets reached record levels, and nonperforming assets improved dramatically, as the state’s largest financial institution continued benefiting from an improving economy.

“We’re seeing a continued strong tourism sector as well as very good job gains in construction,” First Hawaiian Chairman and CEO Bob Harrison said Tuesday in advance of its earnings report, due out today. “Those are really driving down unemployment, and with people working, that makes for a better economy.”

First Hawaiian’s net income rose 6.1 percent to $59.2 million from $55.8 million in the year-earlier quarter. The profit was the highest amount for the bank in any quarter this year.

Loans increased 6.9 percent to $10.5 billion, deposits grew 5.4 percent to $15.4 billion and assets rose 4.4 percent to $18.9 billion.

“It was a good quarter,” Harrison said. “Really the strength of the quarter was in the loan and deposit growth. You don’t see that exactly translated into earnings growth because net interest income (the difference between interest earned on loans/securities and what is paid out on deposits) was up about 1 percent because of the continued low interest environment.”

First Hawaiian is the first local bank to report third-quarter earnings, and if its results are any indication, the other local banks may have also had strong third quarters. Bank of Hawaii, the state’s second-largest bank, No. 3 American Savings Bank, No. 4 Central Pacific Bank and No. 5 Territorial Savings Bank are all due to report earnings next week.

Harrison said he expects the economy to keep growing.

“I think we’ll see continued steady growth in the rest of 2015 and see a solid 2016,” he said. “You’re seeing a really strong recovery in construction, and with that, good job creation. And the jobs being created are good-paying jobs as well. For the bank, we foresee good, steady improvement in loans and deposits, and that’s what drives our business.”

Harrison said commercial and industrial loans (which are made to businesses for working capital or to finance capital expenditures) have shown the most strength in the bank’s lending portfolio, with residential and consumer loans close behind.

The bank’s nonperforming assets, or loans considered past due and in danger of being written off, plunged 35.1 percent to $20.7 million from $31.9 million in the year-earlier quarter. Nonperforming assets as a percentage of total assets declined to 0.11 percent from 0.18 percent over the same period.

“Our asset quality is probably the best I can ever recall,” Harrison said. “That’s just a reflection of the stronger economy. What we try to do with this is manage our costs carefully. Our NPAs (nonperforming assets) have dropped over 30 percent over the last year, and while it’s never been high for us, we’ve got a number of residential loans working their way through the process, and as they’re worked through, we’ve seen NPAs drop from $32 million to $21 million.”

Net interest income edged up 0.9 percent to $113.5 million from $112.5 million in the year-earlier quarter, while the bank’s net interest margin (the spread between loan/securities and deposits) declined to 2.72 percent from 2.89 percent.

Noninterest income, which includes money earned from service charges and fees, rose 8.7 percent to $56.5 million from $52 million.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of French banking giant BNP Paribas, First Hawaiian is not required to separately report its earnings, but does so voluntarily each quarter. The bank has 57 branches in Hawaii, three on Guam and two on Saipan.