METROPOLITAN Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) grew its first quarter net profit by 3 percent year-on-year to P5.25 billion on higher interest income and treasury gains.
Philippine Savings Bank, the Metrobank group’s banking arm, also posted a 12 percent growth in first quarter net profit to P434.8 million with the continued expansion of its core businesses.
For Metrobank, net interest income grew by 1.15 percent while trading and foreign exchange gains rose by 11 percent to P2.52 billion in the first quarter compared to a year ago. Fee-based income contributed P2.2 billion while miscellaneous income amounted to P1.8 billion.
Despite the volatility in the financial markets at the start of the year, Metrobank said it continued to make strides in its core business expansion, with sustained double-digit growth in loans and low cost deposits.
Low-cost deposits increased by 11 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, bringing the bank’s ratio of low-cost deposits to 59 percent of the total P1.2 trillion deposit base.
The continued build-up of low-cost deposits fuelled the 17 percent expansion in net loans and receivables to P873.4 billion, with key contributions coming from the corporate and consumer segments.
Having prioritized growth in key segments, net interest margins for the period improved to 3.6 percent.
On asset quality, non-performing loans (NPL) were kept at 1.1 percent of total loans.
Metrobank ended the first quarter with consolidated assets of P1.7 trillion and equity at P193.3
billion. Total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) on a Basel 3 basis – a measure of a bank’s financial strength- remained well above the regulatory limit at 18.3 percent with common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio at 15 percent.
For PSBank, loan portfolio expanded by 12 percent year-on-year to P118 billion in the first quarter, mainly driven by auto and mortgage loans.
On the funding side, PSBank’s deposit base rose by 24 percent year-on-year to P136.6 billion, with low cost funds increasing by 21 percent. Meanwhile, core revenues, composed of net interest margin and fee income, went up by 11 percent year-on-year.
“As early as the first quarter of the year, we provided the necessary boost in growing our core retail businesses. And we plan to further grow by offering new products that cater to our customers’ banking needs through targeted cross-selling campaigns throughout the year,” PSBank president Vicente Cuna Jr. said.
“The bank also remained steadfast in providing excellent customer experience to our clients because we believe that banking entails more than just lending and deposit-taking. We know that understanding our clients well has a long-term positive effect to the Bank,” Cuna added.
PSBank’s NPL ratio was kept at 1.1 percent. Its CAR stood at 15 percent, well above the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ 10 percent minimum requirement. Its tier 1 ratio was at 11.9 percent.