An additional £60m impairment charge has been taken by the Irish business of RBS in relation to current sales from the bank’s loan book to further bring down the level of non-performing loans.

The British bank, which announced its third quarter results for 2018, said that underlying credit conditions remained unharmed during the reported quarter that ended 30 September 2018.

For Q3, RBS registered an operating profit before tax of £961m, in comparison to the £871m it reported during the same quarter last year. In the second quarter of 2018, the bank made £613m of operating profit before tax.

For the nine months ended 30 September 2018, the bank reported operating profit before tax of £2.78bn, compared to £2.82bn it announced in the same period in 2017.

It further said that it’s attributable profit for Q3 2018 is £448m while the year to date attributable profit is £1.33bn.

RBS saw its income move up by 2.7% to £268m for the year to date compared with same period last year. It said that barring NatWest Markets and Central items and notable items in UK PBB and Commercial Banking, income was widely stable.

The bank’s income in the third quarter grew 15.4% to £485m compared to the third quarter of last year. The British bank said that the growth primarily reflected indemnity insurance recoveries of £272m along with lower disposal losses.

RBS reported its total assets as on 30 September 2018 at £719.9bn. At the end of the second quarter, the bank had reported its total assets at £748.3bn.

The British bank saw a 14% increase from the previous quarter in the number of customers using its mobile app, which now stands at 6.2 million.

RBS CEO Ross McEwan said: “This is a good performance, set against a highly competitive market and an uncertain economic outlook. We are growing lending in our target markets and are in a strong position to support the economy. We’re aware there is much more work to do and are fully focused on improving for our customers.”

Last month, the bank revealed its decision to close 54 branches in England and Wales in January 2019, which would result in nearly 258 job cuts.