Rate cuts to boost RCBC earnings

RCBC president and CEO Eugene Acevedo | Photo by Meg J. Adonis

After four consecutive quarters of drops, the earnings of Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) may finally climb by the end of the year following the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) interest rate cut.

RCBC president and CEO Eugene Acevedo told reporters on Thursday that they were expecting the bank’s loan portfolio to expand as a result of lower borrowing costs.

“The important thing is that our net interest income is growing by about 29 percent … so we expect that to continue,” Acevedo said on the sidelines of the Yuchengco Group’s climate change forum in Makati City.

READ: RCBC eyes 27% loan portfolio expansion in 2024

The CEO added that they were focusing their resources on growing the consumer loan and credit card segments, seeing that these core businesses were registering “very strong growth.”

In the first half of the year, the country’s fifth largest private bank saw consumer loans surge by 38 percent on higher auto and housing loans.

This caused the 29-percent uptick in net interest income to P19.75 billion.

Despite this growth, RCBC’s net income dipped by 28.5 percent to P4.45 billion.

Acevedo explained, however, that the decline was due to one-off gains in the previous year.

READ: BSP shaves rate by 25 bps, kicks off easing cycle

But with the BSP’s 25-basis-point rate cut, and potentially another monetary policy easing in the coming months, he said the bank’s bottomline may be “better” this year.

“The core business is going to be much better this year compared to before,” Acevedo noted, adding that they were anticipating another 25-bp rate cut in the latter part of the year.

Earlier, RCBC announced plans to boost its loan portfolio by 27 percent to P160 billion by yearend as it developed new campaigns and programs to attract customers.

The bank said it would also employ targeted selling using analytics and upgrade its existing loan management system.

As of end-June, RCBC’s total assets stood at P1.26 trillion, up by 7.4 percent.

RCBC currently has around 450 branches, 1,486 automated teller machines (ATMs), and 6,836 ATMGo terminals across the country.