Security Bank 9-month profit up 9% to P6.6B

Security Bank Corp.  posted a 9-percent year-on-year growth in its nine-month net profit to P6.6 billion, driven by higher earnings from core businesses.

For the third quarter, net profit rose by 26 percent year-on-year to P1.8 billion, the bank said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Security Bank said its nine-month earnings were boosted by a 28-percent growth in net interest income to P11.5 billion while loan volume expanded by 24 percent. This more than made up for a P1.3-billion year-on-year decrease in securities trading gains to P1.6 billion.

The third quarter growth was also attributed to a 27-percent increase in net interest income to P4.1 billion.

“The continuing growth in our net interest income has been making up for lower trading gains,” bank president and CEO Alfonso Salcedo Jr. said.

The bank reported a 20-percent year-on-year increase in corporate/commercial loans in the first nine months.

Key consumer loan portfolios—home, auto loans and credit card receivables—grew by 74 percent. Consumer loans now account for 13 percent of the bank’s total loan portfolio, up from 10 percent a year ago.

Net interest margin for the period averaged 3.1 percent.

Non-interest income contributed P4.1 billion.

Total deposits grew by 9 percent, driven by low-cost deposits which rose by 21 percent. High-cost deposits were flat as the bank put to use the recent P37 billion in capital investment received from The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in April.

Operating expense grew by 12 percent. As efficiency gauge, the bank spent 49 centavos to generate P1 in income.

The bank said it was making big investments in information technology, people and branches. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla