BPI nets P17.38B

AYALA-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) posted a 25.6 percent year-on-year growth in net profit in the first nine months to P17.38 billion, buoyed by higher interest and non-interest earnings.

Net interest income increased by 9.1 percent year-on-year to P31.28 billion, driving the 14.3 percent rise in revenues to P50.42 billion for the nine-month period.

The bank grew its loan book for the nine-month period by 19.4 percent year-on-year to P931.12 billion.

Non-interest income for the nine-month period rose by 23.9 percent to P19.14 billion, attributed to
strong gains in trading, as well as fees earned from core transactional and bancassurance businesses.

“I am very pleased with BPI’s strong earnings momentum going into the end of the year. We are doing some very innovative things with both clients and our own organization to build this momentum. Our shareholders can expect us to continue to achieve volume and topline growth within a context of strong risk and cost discipline,” BPI president and chief executive officer Cezar Consing said in a press statement on Wednesday.

Operating expenses increased by 11.7 percent year-on-year to P25.58 billion, driven by non-recurring collective bargaining costs and accelerated information technology-related spending. The bank also continued to raise provisions, which rose by 20.1 percent year-on-year to P3.95 billion, notwithstanding stable credit quality.

The bank said it expected to operating expense growth to ease to single-digit levels for the full year 2016.

The nine-month performance translated to a return on equity of 14.7 percent for BPI.

On asset quality, 90-day non-performing loans (NPLs) as a ratio of total loans improved to 1.6 percent from 1.8 percent a year ago while reserve coverage ended at 112.3 percent.

On the funding side, total deposits stood at P1.32 trillion, rising by 11.6 percent year-on-year. Low-cost deposits accounted for 75.2 percent of total deposits.

Total assets ended at P1.59 trillion, up by 12.8 percent while total capital rose by 10.1 percent to P165.56 billion. Capital adequacy ratio stood at 14.2 percent of risk assets while tier 1 or core capital accounted for 13.3 percent of risk assets.