UnionBank 2022 income inches up, revenues hit record after Citi takeover

The Aboitiz family’s Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) kicked off the fourth quarter 2022 earnings season on Monday, announcing stable profits last year as revenues soared to a record high after taking over Citi Philippines’ consumer business.

UnionBank, part of the family conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., said in a stock exchange filing that full-year net income rose 0.7 percent to P12.67 billion while net revenues jumped 16 percent to P52.2 billion.

The lender said earnings were bolstered by net interest income and fee-based income, offsetting the drop in trading gains.

Fees and other income doubled to P13.4 billion, which the company mainly attributed to the P72-billion acquisition of Citi and its growing base of “digital customer transactions.”

“In 2022, we witnessed a momentous shift in our business model. We have a solid balance sheet that continues to provide us above industry net interest margins,” UnionBank chief finance officer Manuel Lozano said in a statement on Monday.

“The shift in digital also allowed us to grow our fees coming from mobile fund transfers and payments. We were able to book the same bottom line as the previous year, but with less reliance on trading,” he added.

For the full year, UnionBank’s net interest income jumped 31 percent to P38.9 billion as interest margin expanded by 27 basis points to 4.9 percent. Credit loss expenses during the period also dropped 30 percent to P4.1 billion.

UnionBank ended 2022 with total assets of P1.1 trillion, up 31 percent, as customer loans rose by 42 percent to P479.2 billion.

This was due to the combined growth of UnionBank, City Savings and Citi. Moreover, total deposits went up by 25 percent to P711.3 billion “due to the overall expansion of the retail customer base and the strong take-up of cash management products from large corporates.”

—Miguel R. Camus INQ