Heritage Bank is experiencing better trading conditions, with a return to profit growth in the half year to December 2012. The Toowoomba-based mutual bank said it earned an underlying profit of $23.9 million for the half, a rise of 16 per cent. The underlying profit excludes gains on the sale of some of its holdings of Visa shares and some other adjustments.Heritage had reported a fall of two per cent in earnings for the year to June.The bank said loan approvals increased 42 per cent, to A$569 million, over the half, with the rise largely being sourced from broker flows.Overall loan growth was muted, with receivables up six per cent, to $6.8 billion. Deposit growth over the half year was one per cent.