Bank of Nova Scotia said Tuesday that third-quarter earnings jumped 17% to $733 million, spurred by “solid contributions” from the bank’s three major business lines.

Net income was up from $626 million a year ago. On a per-share (diluted) basis earnings were 71¢, up 18.3% from 60¢ in the third quarter of 2003.

Total revenue dipped to $2.57 billion from $2.64 billion.

Return on equity for the period was 19.4% vs 17.7%.

For the nine months ended July 31, net income was a record $2.2 billion vs $1.8 billion in the same period last year, an increase of 22.4%. Earnings per share (diluted) were $2.13 vs $1.71, up 24.6%, and return on equity was 20.2% vs 17.2%.

Total assets at July 31 were $286.9 billion vs $282.2 billion a year earlier, a gain of 1.6%.

“Scotiabank continued to benefit this quarter from its strategy of diversifying across three strong growth platforms,” Rick Waugh, president and CEO, said in a news release. “As well, credit quality continued to improve. The provision for credit losses is at its lowest quarterly level in more than five years.”

The bank set aside $50 million in the quarter for bad loans , down from $200 million last year.

The bank also declared a quarterly dividend of 30¢ per common share.