Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Jing, Manager of Capital Marketing. Please go ahead.
Good morning, listeners, and welcome to CNFinance third quarter financial results conference call. In today's call, our Director and Vice President, Mr. Qian Jun , will walk us through the operating results, followed by financial results from our acting CFO, Ms. Jing Li. After that, we will have a Q&A session. Before we start, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as will, expect, anticipate, future, intend, plan, believe, estimate, project, going forward, outlook, and similar statements.
Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current markets and operating conditions as they relate to the events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors. All of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company's control, which may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties, or factors is included in the company's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law. Now, please welcome Mr. Qian Jun.
[Foreign language]
Thank you for taking time to join this conference call. We will discuss next year's third quarter of 2023 operating and financial results, and followed by a Q&A session.
[Foreign language]
During the third quarter of 2023, the company focused on expanding business scale and improving asset quality, and achieved year-on-year growth in all important indicators. During the quarter, the company facilitated loans of RMB 5.1 billion, increased by 20% year-on-year, and achieved a net income of RMB 53 million, increased by 15% year-on-year. Furthermore, as a result of its sound risk control mechanism, the company's recovery rate remained at 110%. The company's highlights for the quarter including the following:
[Foreign language]
The first, focus on expanding business scale. During the quarter, the company's total loans origination volume was CNY 5.1 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 20% and a 12% increase as compared to the second quarter of 2023. Among the CNY 5.1 billion loans facilitated, CNY 3.9 billion was under trust lending model, and CNY 1.2 billion was under commercial bank partnership.
[Foreign language]
Continuing to refine our service to sales partners and help ease their liquidity pressures. Due to our installment policy, sales partners' liquidity has significantly improved. During the quarter, a few historical defaulted sales partners were able to recommence their install payments. This has effectively reduced the risk exposure of the company.
[Foreign language]
Optimizing products and help making finance more inclusive. In the third quarter of 2023, the company's average financing costs were slightly lower than that in the beginning of the year, and the company adjusted portions of the lower interest rate product in its product mix accordingly. By optimizing the product mix and lower customer interest rates, we were able to give real benefits to the MSE owners and lay a good foundation for serving the needs of borrowers with better credit history.
[Foreign language]
In order to improve the asset quality, the company has been continuously refining the factors in its credit assessment and have fully leveraged technology to improve the accuracy of the assessment of borrowers and collaterals. In addition, the company has drastically shift its business to core regions. During the quarter, loans facilitated in the first-tier and new first-tier cities has reached 80% of overall loan facilitation.
[Foreign language]
Management believes that China's market is currently in a period of recovery, and the price of real estate market is still fluctuating. At the same time, we believe that China will continue to introduce similar policies, and China's inclusive finance industry is still in the opportunity period. We will continue to adopt the guiding principle of high quality development, which emphasize scale, qualities, and compliance, with the following specific objectives in mind.
[Foreign language]
Optimize the product mix, improve sales capabilities, refine the risk control system, reach to prospective borrowers with high-quality collaterals as well as good credit records. In order to match this goal, the company needs to continuously broaden its financing channels, bring in new funders and launch new loan products.
[Foreign language]
Continue to promote the application of models, systems, and big data in credit approval. Make the whole process more standardized, generative, systematized, and intelligent to reduce human intervention and improve overall efficiency.
[Foreign language]
Continue the transition to the platform model by accelerating the disposal of non-performing loans. The company plan to transfer a bulk of defaulted loans to a third party before the end of the year to recover cash and reduce the company's risk exposure.
[Foreign language]
Now, I'd like to hand the call over to Ms. Jay Li, and she will walk you through the third-party financials.
Thank you. Now we will go over the financials. Please note that the currency we use will be in RMB, and all comparisons will be made on a year-on-year basis, unless otherwise stated. For the third quarter of 2023, total interest and fees income was RMB 425 million, as compared to RMB 445 million. Interest and financing service fees on loans were RMB 398 million, as compared to RMB 413 million. The decrease was due to the decrease of weighted average interest rate of loans outstanding. Interest income charged to sales partners was RMB 32.7 million, as compared to RMB 33.5 million. Total interest and fees expenses decreased by 13% to RMB 117 million, as compared to RMB 195 million.
The decrease was mainly due to the lower funding cost of trust company partners as a result of recent regulatory development. Net interest and fees income increased slightly from CNY 254 million to CNY 255 million. Net revenue under the commercial bank partnership model was CNY 27.6 million as compared to CNY 0.4 million. The outstanding loan principal under the commercial bank partnership was CNY 5 billion as of September 30, 2023, as compared to CNY 0.6 billion as of September 30, 2022. Collaboration cost for sales partners was CNY 87 million as compared to CNY 85 million. Net interest and fees income after collaboration cost increased 15.5% to CNY 196 million from CNY 117 million. Provision for credit losses decreased by 72% to CNY 12 million from CNY 41 million.
In the third quarter of 2023, some sales partners who forfeited their credit risk mitigation position due to the inability to fulfill their obligation to repurchase delinquent loans in last few quarters, were able to recommence their payments, which has provided more protection to the loans. Total operating expenses increased by 27% to CNY 106 million from CNY 83 million. Employee compensation and benefits was increased 15% to CNY 58 million from CNY 50 million, due to an increase in the performance-based bonuses as a result of an increase in low origination volume during the third quarter of 2022-2023.
Other expenses increased by 71% to CNY 35 million from CNY 20 million, mainly due to the increase in fees paid to local channels, who are rewarded for referring sales partners to the company, and will also receive commissions of a certain percentage of loans recommended to the company by the sales partners they have referred. Net income increased by 15% to CNY 53 million from CNY 46 million. Now, we would like to start the Q&A session. Operator, please.
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw from the question queue, please press Star then two. The first question comes from William Gregozeski of Greenridge Global. Please go ahead.
Hey, great quarter. With regards to the trust lending at CNY 3.9 billion, that's up quite a bit from where it has been. Can you just talk about where the, I guess, the demand you saw for that, that growth came from? And if you expect it to continue going forward?
[Foreign language]
So, for the increase of loan origination under the trust lending model, I think the main reasons are twofold. I think the first one is that, in the beginning of the year, we have decided to shift our business more to, you know, Tier 1 and new Tier 1 cities. And also the second, the second reason was because we kind of focused on our most competitive products, which is large ticket size products with house with a higher value as the collateral. Thank God, those two are the two main reasons that gave us the chance to grab the demands of the borrower in such, you know, uncertain, with such uncertainties in the economy, as well, as well as the fluctuation in property prices.
[Foreign language]
Also, since we have been able to manage to decrease the overall financing cost, it allowed us to reach to customers with better collateral, as well as better credit records. That also helped to broaden our customer reach as well.
Okay, great. As far as the origination, since we're getting close to 2024, do you guys have any forecasts for where you're looking for that for next year on a total basis or broken out by trust and commercial?
[Foreign language]
Based on the current uncertainty of the market, we have set a rather realistic and also conservative goal for the year of 2024. Our projected loan origination for next year is CNY 20 billion, with loans facilitated under the commercial bank model taking up 30%-35%.
Okay. So roughly flat on an overall basis from this year?
[Foreign language]
Uh, Yes.
Okay. Last question is: with the sales partners buying back into their position in the quarter, is that... Are you seeing your, your sales partners with more cash to be a little more flexible, to not fall behind on payments? Or what, can you just kind of briefly talk about the health of the sales partners financially?
[Foreign language]
So, the first thing that helped to improve their liquidity is we kind of loosen the terms on their installment payments.
[Foreign language]
And, the second reason is that we have made our effort to help the sales partners to dispose their non-performing loans. We have made our efforts to push the legal proceeding as well as the settlement with borrowers, which also helped the sales partners to get rid of the non-performing assets and also recover cash.
Okay, great. Thank you.
There are no other questions at this time. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Jing for closing remarks.
Thank you for joining us today. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at ir@cnfinance.cn. Thank you!