YUCHENGCO-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. grew its net profit last year by 15.2 percent to P5.1 billion on higher core earnings.
This brought the bank’s return on equity for 2015 to 9.24 percent while return on assets stood at 1.08 percent, RCBC said in a press statement on Monday.
Excluding trading gains and extraordinary income, RCBC said core profit last year grew by 43 percent.
“RCBC clearly demonstrated its resilience in 2015 with net income and core income posting healthy growth. Steadily, the bank has bolstered its core businesses by deliberately focusing on recurring and less cyclical sources of revenue. The bank’s combined net interest income and fee-based income now comprise 87 percent of gross income,” RCBC president Lorenzo Tan said.
“We will continue to focus on the quality of our earnings and growth as we continue to face a more challenging regulatory, interest rate, and global economic environment in 2016,” he said.
Net interest income reached P15.6 billion, up by 4 percent from the previous year while net interest margin (NIM) averaged at 4.15 percent, one of the highest in the sector despite the competition and challenging market conditions.
The grew its loan book by 18 percent, with all market segments showing consistent growth. Average loan volume of the corporate segment grew by 18 percent, consumer segment by 17 percent, and small and medium enterprise (SME) segment by 24 percent.
Microfinance lending through Rizal Microbank also advanced, with loan disbursements growing by 32 percent and outstanding loan portfolio increasing by 85 percent.
In terms of asset quality, consolidated net non-performing loan (NPL) ratio stood at 0.79 percent, now at its record lowest even in the midst of robust expansion in loans. Consolidated NPL cover stood at 101.65 percent.
Accounting for 17 percent of gross income, total fee-based income rose by 20% percent to P3.7 billion. Investment banking-related fees expanded by 154 percent, bancassurance fees by 102 percent, fees related to loan transactions by 51 percent, and prepaid card fees by 34 percent.
On the expenditure side, total operating expenses rose by 5 percent to P15 billion.
Total deposits expanded by P27 billion to P342.4 billion, of which low-cost current account/savings account deposits accounted for 65 percent, an all time-high ratio for the bank. Meanwhile, total number of wealth management clients increased by 11 percent to 3,118 in 2015 leading to the growth in total asset under management (AUM) by 13 percent to P84.3 billion. For 2016, RCBC’s wealth management is looking to grow both its clients and AUM `by 16 percent.
Total consolidated resources grew by 13 percent to P516.6 billion, driven by the strategic investment in April 2015 of Cathay Life Insurance Corp.
The bank’s capital adequacy ratio ended at 15.72 percent, well-above the minimum regulatory requirement of 10 percent.
RCBC ended last year with a distribution network of 456 branches while ATMs (automated teller machines) increased to 1,342.