Rebisco-led bank projects 14% increase in 2018 profit

The Rebisco Group’s Asia United Bank (AUB) is expecting profit to grow around 14 percent in 2018 as it expands its presence and clientele.

The lender said on Friday it was poised to hit a net income of P3.2 billion by the end of 2018, up from P2.8 billion last year.

AUB, which opened at the height of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, also outlined plans for branch expansion and its focus on technology platforms and automation to lure customers. It said it planned to open 15 new branches this year, which would bring its network size to 264 branches by yearend.

“We may not have the same scale and resources as the big banks, but we believe we have advantages,” AUB president Manuel Gomez said in a press briefing after the company’s annual meeting on Friday.

AUB was the 14th largest in the country in terms of assets as of end-2017, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Gomez was mainly referring to AUB’s “lean organizational structure” and how it embraces agility and technology.

On Friday, AUB officials sought to underscore the preference to develop in-house IT solutions aimed at improving services to customers.

Moreover, it has already started to integrate the National Retail Payment System into AUB’s platform.

Financial technology is another area where AUB has taken big steps.

It has partnerships with China’s WeChat and Alipay for mobile payment transactions.

“We recognize that fintechs have a role to play in the ecosystem so we do not treat them as competition but as ‘coo-petition’,” Wilfredo Rodriguez Jr., AUB head of operations and information technology, said in a separate statement.

“Fintechs cater to specific products and services that traditional banks fail to serve,” he added.

Jacob Ng, AUB chief transformation officer and branch banking head, said brick and mortar outlets would continue to expand, as he outlined plans to open around 10 to 12 branches per year.

“We want most of them outside Metro Manila as we are looking to expand our reach nationwide,” he said.