Thrift bank Philippine Savings Bank grew its net profit in the third quarter by 20 percent year-on-year to P813 million on higher interest earnings and service fees as well as the turnaround to profitability of its securities trading business.
This brought the January to September profit to P2.2 billion, up 8.4 percent from a year ago.
“The encouraging results we’ve reaped are underscored by a bank-wide mind-set built on purposeful innovations, enhanced operational efficiencies, and firm decisions backed by data analytics and better understanding of our customers,” PSBank president Jose Vicente Alde said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.
Net interest income for the third quarter went up by 3.9 percent year-on-year to P2.92 billion. For the nine-month period, however, net interest income slipped by 5.4 percent to P8.19 billion as interest expenses rose at a faster pace than gross interest income.
Fee-based earnings improved by 20 percent year-on-year to P448.67 million in the third quarter. For the nine-month period, this business grew by 28.5 percent to P1.44 billion.
The bank also booked larger gains on foreclosure of investment properties, while foreign exchange windfall was lower during the period.
Securities trading gains for the nine-month period hit P111.73 million, reversing the P122.08-million loss in the same period last year.
PSBank said its strong financial results were supported by a 9.3-percent growth in its core revenue, composed of interest income and fee-based income. Its earnings translated to an annualized return-on-assets of 1.2 percent.
The bank expanded its loan book by 6.4 percent year-on-year to P162.1 billion, driven by its automobile and mortgage loan offerings. Bad loans were kept at 2.7 percent of total portfolio.
On the funding side, low-cost deposits rose by 6.7 percent year-on-year to P56.9 billion, while total deposits went down by 8.4 percent to P181.1 billion. The bank said it continued to “rebalance its funding mix to focus on retail and alternative sources.” —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA