Northern Financial Corp. saw its loss narrow in the third quarter of fiscal 2006.

Northern, the parent company of full service investment dealer Northern Securities, said its net loss in the third quarter ended Dec. 31, 2005, was $113,302, a substantial improvement compared with a net loss of $835,813 in the third quarter of fiscal 2005.

Revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2006 was $4.48 million, a modest increase compared to $4.46 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2005.

Underwriting and advisory revenue during the quarter was $1.5 million, down 34% from $2.3 million in the third quarter of the previous year.

Commission revenue in the quarter was of $1.4 million, up 16% compared to commission revenue of $1.2 million in the third quarter of the previous year.

Net trading revenue was $1.2 million, double that of a year ago.

“We experienced solid Private Client commission growth in the quarter which we attribute to the expansion of our Private Client group under the leadership of George Garner. Our strategy is to continue to expand this side of our business and we are very pleased with the pace and quality of new hires to date,” said Vic Alboini, chairman and CEO, in a release.

“Our Capital Markets platform also continues to improve. Our goal is to continue to increase the level of underwriting revenue and substantially increase the level of institutional commission revenue in coming quarters by building on the investment we have made in our investment banking, research, institutional sales and trading teams in recent quarters,” said Alboini.