THE COUNTRY’S largest lender BDO Unibank grew its nine-month net profit by 10 percent year-on-year to P19.3 billion as higher earnings from core businesses made up for the slack in treasury gains.
“The bank’s core lending, deposit-taking and fee-based businesses delivered solid results during the period, offsetting a more normalized contribution from treasury activities,” BDO said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
BDO expanded its net interest income by 16 percent to P48.4 billion alongside the growth in loan volume.
Customer loan portfolio expanded by 15 percent to P1.4 trillion on broad-based growth across all market segments.
On the funding side, total deposits rose by 14 percent to P1.8 trillion, supported by the 21 percent increase in low-cost deposits which now comprise 70 percent of total deposits.
Fee-based income was up by 15 percent to P16 billion,while trading and foreign exchange income normalized at P4.5 billion, or a decline of 29 percent year-on-year.
Operating expenses increased by 29 percent to P52.8billion, reflecting the consolidation of One Network Bank (ONB) and BDO Life Insurance operations. On a comparable basis net of these new businesses, operating expenses would have grown by only 12 percent in line with continued business expansion.
The bank set aside P2.6 billion in provisions even as asset quality held firm. Gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was steady at 1.3 percent of total loans while NPL cover remained high at 143 percent.
BDO’s capital base stood at P215.4 billion, with core or tier1 and capital adequacy ratio (CAR) both remaining above the current regulatory minimum under the Basel 3 framework.