RCBC Q2 profit up 118% as loan business picked up

Bucking the downturn in lending activities during this prolonged pandemic, Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) improved its second quarter profit compared to a quarter ago as well as a year ago despite the normalization of treasury gains.

RCBC’s second quarter net profit came in at P1.75 billion, rebounding by 118 percent year-on-year and rising by 11 percent from the first quarter level despite the reimposition of tighter quarantine protocols at end-March through early April.

This brought the bank’s first semester net profit to P3.3 billion, 7-percent higher year-on-year.

Driven by higher business volume, RCBC grew its core businesses while improving funding cost and realizing cost-savings from digitalization efforts and channel rationalization, RCBC head of corporate planning Christina Alvarez said at a press briefing.

RCBC’s customer loan business expanded by 9 percent year-on-year, even as its peers in the local banking area contracted by an average of 2 percent.

The bank reported an expansion in both corporate and small and medium enterprise segments by 10 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, fee-based income also expanded by 47 percent as investments and retail transactions picked up.

Gross income, net of trading and foreign exchange gains, increased by 13 percent year on year to P16.9 billion.

On the funding side, RCBC grew its low-cost deposits by 28 percent year-on-year, while investment securities surged by 3.4 times the level seen last year.

Through “business process reengineering and rationalization efforts,” operating expenses rose by a modest 1 percent year-on-year.

RCBC booked P2.3 billion in provisions for impairment losses in the first half, which was 55-percent lower than the level seen in the same period last year.

Total assets expanded by 18 percent to P845.8 billion. INQ