The country’s biggest lender BDO Unibank grew its third-quarter net profit by 41 percent year-on-year to P5.7 billion on higher interest earnings alongside a burgeoning industry-wide improvement in treasury earnings after a sluggish start in the year.
For the nine-month period, net profit posted by the banking arm of the SM group amounted to P16.8 billion, 7.7-percent lower than the level in the same period last year but nearly three-fourths of what the bank has committed to attain for 2014.
“With these results, the bank is on track to achieving its full year target of P22.8 billion,” the bank told the Philippine Stock Exchange Monday.
BDO chalked up P22.6 billion in net profit in 2013, a year marked by an extraordinary surge in trading gains. This year’s goal is slightly better than last year’s record-high level.
For the third quarter, BDO said the double-digit rise in earnings was driven by “sustainable quality earnings from its commercial banking businesses.”
For the nine-month period, BDO said its net interest income expanded by 21 percent year-on-year to P37.5 billion.
Non-interest income for the nine-month period amounted to P21.8 billion, 15.5-percent down from the level a year ago. The bank cited “steady results from fee-based services and treasury operations.”
On the expenditure side, operating expenses amounted to P36.9 billion for the nine-month period, about 14-percent higher than the level in the same period last year.
In terms of asset quality, BDO’s stock of soured loans as a ratio of total loan portfolio eased to 1.4 percent as of end-September, down from the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of 1.6 percent at end-2013.
“With continued provisioning, the NPL coverage stood at 184 percent, one of the highest in the industry,” the bank said.
Based on the Basel 3 framework, BDO’s capital adequacy ratio stood at 14.1 percent of risk assets while counting only core or tier 1 capital, the capital adequacy ratio was at 12.7 percent. These ratios are above the minimum levels of 10 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively, required by regulators.