MANILA -The Ty family’s Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co (Metrobank) recorded a profit spike of nearly 36 percent to an all-time high of P31.8 billion during the first nine months of 2023, joining other top banks that are enjoying a windfall in earnings thanks to robust lending activity and higher interest rates.
Metrobank’s net income from January to September—driven by asset expansion, better margins and non-interest income growth—was equivalent to 97 percent of full-year earnings in 2022.
“The sustained growth of the bank shows that we remain strong and resilient despite the unpredictable market conditions,” Metrobank president Fabian S. Dee said in a stock exchange filing on Friday.
Metrobank, the country’s second-biggest lender, closed the nine-month period with a return on equity of 12.8 percent, better than the 10 percent recorded during the same period in 2022.
Net interest income jumped 24.4 percent to P77.2 billion as gross loans expanded by 7.1 percent.
This was led by consumer loan growth of 16.5 percent as credit cards receivables grew 29.5 percent, followed by auto loans, up 21.6 percent. Commercial loans also gained 4.8 percent during the period.
At the same time, trading and foreign exchange gains surged 45.5 percent to P3.6 billion as fee income rose by 9.7 percent to P12.2 billion.
“We will continue to work on keeping our sound capital and liquidity positions as we look for more market opportunities,” Dee said.
Metrobank also underlined an improvement in asset quality as the non-performing loans (NPL) ratio eased to 1.7 percent from 2.1 percent last year. It added that restructured loans accounted for 0.4 percent of the total.
Overall, the bank maintained its conservative stance and increased NPL cover to a high of 187.1 percent, the filing showed.
Meanwhile, total deposits grew by 14.5 percent to P2.3 trillion from a year ago with about 59 percent coming from low-cost current and savings accounts.
Thus, its cost to income ratio improved to 51.5 percent from 54.5 percent last year. Operating expenses, which added 15.1 percent, were mainly due to technology related upgrades and capacity expansion.
Metrobank closed the nine-month period with total assets of P3 trillion while total equity hit P342.2 billion. It maintained some of the highest capital ratios in the industry, with a capital adequacy ratio at 18.4 percent and common equity tier 1 ratio at 17.6 percent, which were above regulatory requirements.