Bank lending accelerated in October for the third straight month as loans to individuals grew and companies posted higher profits on exports.

Loans excluding trusts rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier, the Bank of Japan said Thursday, marking the first three-month expansion since April 2006. Lending adjusted for currency fluctuations, bad-loan writeoffs and securitizations climbed 1.4 percent for the second consecutive month.

"The financial market turmoil doesn't seem to have had as much impact on Japanese banks," said David Cohen, an economist at Action Economics in Singapore.