UnionBank bets on consumer loan growth amid rate hikes

CREDIT LINE UnionBank executives led by (fromleft) Albert Cuadrante, chief marketing officer; Manoj Varma, consumer banking head; Edwin Bautista, president and CEO; Carissa Sindiong, cards products head; and Vishal Kadian, cards and loans head —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA  -Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines is bullish on the consumer segment as it rolled out new credit cards to help sustain robust lending growth.

Manoj Varma, UnionBank consumer business head and senior executive vice president, told reporters on Wednesday their credit cards, unsecured loans and small business loans were recording rapid growth of 20 percent to 25 percent despite the elevated interest rate environment.

“We are growing very strong double digits depending on which product you’re looking at,” Varma said, as the banking giant held its biggest launch of credit cards since the P72-billion takeover of Citi’s Philippine consumer business last year.

“There is revenge spending and revenge travel and we are benefiting [from this],” he added.

Varma also underscored there was no uptick in loan delinquencies despite the growth of their portfolio.

He added that growth could moderate to about 10 percent to 15 percent next year because of the high “base effect” in 2023. On Wednesday, UnionBank introduced a new line of credit cards for its diverse customer base.

These were the UnionBank Rewards Card, UnionBank Cash Back Card, UnionBank Miles+ Card and the UnionBank Reserve Card.

“We are happy to unveil the relaunch of your Citi credit cards under the UnionBank brand,” Varma said in a separate statement.

“We are keeping true to the promise we made to our clients that they will continue to enjoy their current product benefits, but I am delighted to share that we are not stopping there. Our customers can expect even bigger and better things with their rebranded UnionBank cards,” he added.