PBB nets P340M

THE ZEST-O group’s banking arm Philippine Business Bank (PBB) grew its six-month net profit by 13.2 percent year-on-year to P340 million on higher earnings from core lending activities.

Net interest income inched up by 0.9 percent year-on-year to P1.22 billion. This was complemented by a 92.6 percent rise in trading gains to P92.9 million.

PBB expanded its loan book by 10.4 percent year-on-year to P42.5 billion. On the other hand, net interest margins were kept at 4.2 percent.

Non-interest income from service charges, fees and commissions and miscellaneous income also increased by 22.2 percent year-on-year to P87.4 million in the first semester.

“PBB completed a successful re-engineering of its credit marketing and credit management processes. We strengthened our credit management team in anticipation of larger business volumes moving forward. We also streamlined our lending units such that our marketing efforts are now more customer-centric than ever,” PBB president Roland Avante said in a press statement on Wednesday.

“We are expecting considerable growth starting in the second half of 2016 and beyond. Our revamped marketing units should be able to generate better volumes moving forward,” Avante added.

PBB ended the first half with P63.9 billion in total resources, rising by 2.6 percent from the end-2015 level.

“We are confident that the changes we have implemented to improve our account management processes and to strengthen our credit management team will redound to a more robust balance sheet leading to sustained profitability for PBB. While there was some slowdown in the expansion of our risk assets, the near term sacrifices will pay off in the long run. The rest of 2016 will likely show better earnings for PBB compared to 2015. The revitalized credit teams underscore PBB’s evolution into a mature financial services firm,” said Avante.

PBB ended June with a consolidated branch network of 150 branches nationwide.