The strengthening economy has bank customers on the hunt for higher returns and is forcing banks to raise rates in order to protect deposits.

United Financial Bancorp, the holding company of Glastonbury, Connecticut-based United Bank, lost four basis points on its net interest margin pushing it down to 3 percent in the third quarter.

United CFO Eric Newell told investors on an earnings call that the bank had to offer a promotion on its interest-bearing deposits to protect people from seeking out higher returns elsewhere.

“In Connecticut and Massachusetts, local and regional depositories are raising rates and doing special offers,” he said on the call. “There are promotional money markets at 150 basis points and 200 basis points. We did a promotion to protect deposits, which drove our cost of [funds on] CDs and money markets.”

The move comes as some banks in New England are starting to feel deposit pressure, as the strengthening economy is hinting at potential rate hikes in the near future.

Newell said some of the bank’s municipal and commercial customers who have money market accounts with the bank called about higher rates. He also said some regional banks in the market started offering fairly aggressive rates, and smaller banks seem to have a “biased” towards 1.5 percent or higher.

Despite the slimming margin, the bank still reported net income for the quarter $15.2 million, or $0.30 per diluted share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2017, compared to net income of $14.2 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, for the third quarter 2016.

Net interest income for the quarter was $46.8 million, up about $3.7 million from the third quarter of 2016. Non-interest income for the quarter was about $8.1 million, up slightly from the third quarter of 2016.

United CEO William Crawford also told investors about a new loan origination platform the bank has been developing that could be fully operational next year.

The new platform is a “centralized credit delivery channel” for many different lending teams at the bank that will allow scale of the company’s business banking segment, which consists of loans under $500,000 and also as high as $2 million, he said.

Crawford said the bank has been significantly investing in its information technology over the past 18 months to make the platform possible, and that the platform could help keep expenses lower.

Total loans increased about $485 million year-over-year, led by strong increases in commercial real estate and commercial business loans, while deposits jumped $458 million roughly, pushing United close to $7 billion in assets.

When asked about whether a future acquisition could be in the cards, Crawford said the company is open to it, but that there is a low probability of one occurring because he does not see a significant number of sellers in the market.