PBB reports lower 9-month profit

The Zest-O group’s banking arm Philippine Business Bank (PBB) posted a net profit of P466.1 million in the first nine months of this year, down by 30.4 percent year-on-year due to lower trading gains and higher expenses from loan loss provisioning.

For the third quarter alone, PBB’s net profit eased to P125.77 million compared to P329.96 million in the same period last year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PBB said nine-month core income—referring to total revenue excluding trading gains or losses and non-interest expenses—expanded by 50.6 percent year-on-year to P673.7 million.

Net interest income for the nine-month period rose by 19 percent year-on-year to P2.2 billion. The bank said it benefited from streamlined account management processes.

“Our loan portfolio expanded over 37 percent to P65 billion while our deposits are up almost 24 percent to P67 billion, and our total resources grew over 22 percent to P80 billion. As a result, all of PBB’s core brick-and-mortar income sources such as net interest income, service fees, and miscellaneous income expanded versus the same period last year. Our core income grew over 50 percent to P673.7 million,” said Roland Avante, president and chief executive officer of PBB.

“Due to the lack of trading opportunities this year brought about by the pressure on interest rates to go up, PBB felt it was prudent to limit trading activities. Trading gains were at P16.7 million, lower by almost P270 million year-over-year. Second, our loan loss provisioning increased by 195.2 percent ending September 2017 at P177.1 million in line with the changing regulatory requirements and the implementation of PFRS9 (Philippine Financial Reporting Standards-9),” he added. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA