United Overseas Bank, Singapore’s third-largest lender by market value, posted a gain in quarterly profit that beat analysts’ estimates as a recovery in Southeast Asian economies boosted loans and fee income.

Net income climbed 38%t to $688 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $500 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement in Singapore today. That topped the $590.7 million average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

United Overseas, led by Chief Executive Officer Wee Ee Cheong, benefited from a revival in credit demand as the city- state’s economy grew 10.3% in the third quarter from a year earlier. The Singapore-based lender is expanding in Asia while at the same time containing costs, according to analyst Kenneth Ng.

 

“They have always been a good cost-control bank,” Ng, a Singapore-based analyst at CIMB Research Pte, said before the results were announced.

 

A regional stock-market recovery is spurring fee income. The MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan Index has risen more than 15% in the past year as the region’s economic growth outstripped the rest of the world.