(Updates with details on results) Nov 15 (Reuters) -...

(Updates with details on results)

Nov 15 (Reuters) - Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) , the country's largest bank, on Tuesday reported better-than-expected cash earnings for the first quarter, helped by lending volume growth and a rising interest rate environment.

The Sydney-based lender's net interest income grew 16% on the back of higher deposit earnings, volume growth across core products in home lending, business lending and household deposits during the period.

Cash profit, which excludes one-offs and non-cash accounting items, rose to A$2.50 billion ($1.68 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with A$2.20 billion a year ago and a Visible Alpha consensus of A$2.33 billion.

The bank's home lending portfolio grew 6.3% during the quarter from a year ago, while business lending and household deposits jumped 12.6% and 8.6%, respectively.

The bank's arrears, mortgage payment overdue more than 90 days, were at 0.88% for personal loans, and at 0.44% for home loans on strong employment levels.

Its common equity tier 1 ratio stood at 11.1% as of Sept 30, a 31-basis-point gain from June-end. ($1 = 1.4901 Australian dollars) (([email protected]; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))