RCBC 9-month net down 11.3%

Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) saw a 52 percent year-on-year drop in third quarter net profit to P892 million, but earnings bottomed out from the year’s low seen in the second quarter when the country endured harsh lockdown protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic.

For the nine-month period, RCBC posted a net income of P4 billion, down by 11.3 percent year-on-year as the bank incurred higher loan loss provisioning expense to address credit losses arising from the challenging environment. A decline in trading gains compared to last year also gnawed on the nine-month results compared to year-ago levels.

The bank set aside P7.2 billion in loan loss provisions in the nine-month period, up by 38.6 percent from the year-ago buffer.

“The bank remains at a relatively healthy position, but we have yet to see the full impact of this pandemic. We continue to strengthen our balance sheet to soften further impact in the coming months,” RCBC president Eugene Acevedo said in a statement on Tuesday.

Net interest income in the first nine months rose by 20 percent year-on-year to P19.7 billion on the back of low funding costs, while net inte­rest margin rose to 4.36 percent from 4.03 percent a year ago.

While other banks have seen a much slower growth in their loan books, RCBC continued to expand its earning assets. Customer loan book rose 10 percent year-on-year to P452.2 billion, driven mostly by the small and medium enterprise and consumer loan segments.

Its bad loans rose to 3.8 percent of total loans as of end-September from 2 percent a year ago, reflecting credit stress arising from the pandemic. At a press briefing on Tuesday, RCBC corporate planning head Christina Alvarez said some consu­mer loan accounts had weakened. INQ