UnionBank nets P4.8B

MANILA, Philippines – Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines grew its second quarter net profit by 46 percent year-on-year to P2.6 billion, reversing the profit slump in the first quarter due to stronger net interest earnings and trading gains.

This brought the bank’s six-month net profit to P4.8 billion, up by 2 percent year-on-year, the bank disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.

Higher fee income from consumer businesses and securities trading gains also contributed to the improved bottomline in the first semester.

The strong second quarter performance reversed the 24-percent year-on-year profit decline in the first quarter.

“The continuous improvement of our margins contributed to our strong topline results. OpEx (operating expense) growth was also kept manageable amid the integration of PR Savings Bank with CitySavings and continued investments in digital transformation. We are optimistic that we can sustain this momentum for the rest of the year, with potential upsides to our margins, as interest rates start to normalize,” said Jose Emmanuel Hilado, UnionBank treasurer and chief financial officer.

“We are clearly seeing the fruits of our transformation push. Our improved efficiencies enabled us to onboard more retail customers into our platforms. We were able to manage expenses without slowing down on our strategic initiatives. Moreover, we successfully launched our technology and innovation company, UBX. Our i2i and XLog platforms are gaining traction, and we are on our way towards building an MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) lending platform in partnership with the fintech arm of one of the world’s largest financial institutions (Ping An’s OneConnect),” said Edwin Bautista, UnionBank president and chief executive officer.  /gsg