Ty family-led Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. grew its net profit in the third quarter by 49 percent year-on-year to P8.5 billion on higher interest earnings and treasury gains.
This brought the bank’s total income for the nine-month period to P21.6 billion, up by 28.9 percent from the same period last year.
Metrobank attributed its strong earnings to consistent growth in operating revenues on the back of moderate loan growth and margin expansion alongside strong trading and foreign exchange gains and higher fee-based income.
“The bank is proud to have sustained strong growth momentum by navigating well amid the dynamic movements in the local economy. We continue to focus on customer service, profitability and quality growth,” Metrobank president Fabian Dee said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday. “As always, our philosophy centers on providing solutions so that our customers can have meaningful banking experiences.”
For the nine-month period, Metrobank’s net interest income grew by 10 percent to P56.2 billion, accounting for 70 percent of the bank’s total revenues.
Net interest margin further expanded to 3.91 percent, from 3.83 percent in the first half of 2019. On the other hand, loan book expanded by 7 percent year-on-year to P1.4 trillion.
The bank’s noninterest income rose by 36 percent year-on-year to P23.7 billion for the nine-month period. This included P10 billion in service fees and commissions, up from P9.1 billion in the same period last year.
Net trading and foreign exchange gains surged to P8.1 billion, quadrupling from the windfall in the same period last year.
Fee-based revenues and trading gains continued to benefit from increased customer flows in fixed income and foreign exchange as well as opportunities in the financial markets, the bank said.
On the funding side, the bank generated P1.6 trillion in total deposits, of which 64 percent consisted of low-cost deposits.
“Aligned with the performance of the Philippine economy, credit demand was mainly broad-based, led by the corporate segment,” the bank reported.
Citing a continued focus on improving efficiency and productivity, operating expense growth was kept at 9 percent, seen by the bank as a “reasonable” pace.
The bank spent 54 centavos for every peso earned—more efficient than 58 centavos spent for every peso in the same period last year.
On asset quality, nonperforming loans (NPL) stood at 1.5 percent of total loans.
The bank set aside P7.8 billion provisions for credit and impairment losses, aligned with the increase in its asset portfolio. This pushed NPL cover higher to 96 percent, from 87 percent in June 2019.
Metrobank’s consolidated assets and equity stood at P2.3 trillion and P304.7 billion, respectively. Total capital adequacy ratio was at 17.6 percent with common equity tier 1 ratio of 16.3 percent.