Banner year: BDO 2022 profit at record-high P57B

Teresita Sy-Coson —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Sy family-led BDO Unibank Inc. registered a net income of P57.1 billion in 2022, the highest annual earnings ever attained by a local bank, thanks to core businesses bringing up the earnings to another growth year.

The bank’s net profit last year showed a 33-percent growth from P42.8 billion in 2021. It also surpassed its prepandemic bottom line that amounted to P44.19 billion in 2019.

Net interest income improved by about 14 percent to P149.2 billion last year as gross customer loans increased by 9 percent following the further reopening of the economy, according to BDO’s disclosure on Monday.Non-interest income rose by 17.1 percent to P71.5 billion last year on the back of fee income, foreign exchange and fixed income businesses.

Healthy core

Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan told the Inquirer that BDO’s strong performance was due to “better asset quality” and “healthy core” business expansion.

Better net earnings allowed the Sy family-led bank to register a return on average common equity of 13 percent, surpassing the 10.5 percent recorded in 2021 and even the 12.8 percent level in 2019.

BDO said its balance sheet was “solid with very comfortable capital position” given that its asset quality has improved “with ample provisioning.”

Its nonperforming loan (NPL) ratio slowed down to 1.95 percent while NPL coverage rose to 167 percent. Total capital amounted to P461.5 billion as of end-2022, with capital adequacy ratio and common equity tier 1 ratio at 14.5 percent and 13.4 percent of risk assets, respectively. Meanwhile, BDO’s board led by chair Teresita Sy-Coson approved an increase in quarterly cash dividends on common shares by P0.30 to P0.75 starting this first quarter.

“While macroeconomic challenges remain with persistent inflation and foreign exchange and interest rate volatility, BDO believes that its established business franchise and strong balance sheet will allow the bank to surmount near-term risks and capitalize on structural growth opportunities to attain long-term sustainable growth,” it said. INQ