ING Canada Inc. today reported a $92 million third-quarter profit, down from year-ago earnings of $156.8 million.

The insurer said its earnings amounted to 74¢ per share, a 36.8% decline from $1.17 in the comparable period of 2006.

“While organic growth remained solid during the quarter our overall financial performance was down significantly as a result of lower underwriting income, reflecting the continuing decline in industry conditions, and losses on invested assets,” president and CEO Claude Dussault said in a news release.

“Underwriting income decreased during the quarter as a result of a deterioration of our automobile insurance results and higher property losses resulting mainly from an increase in storm activity in Western Canada.”

“Despite this difficult environment, our profitability continues to remain higher than the historical industry average with a 16% return on equity.”

Direct premiums written, excluding industry pools, improved three per cent to $1.08 billion.