Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. grew its first-quarter net profit by 49.47 percent to P1.53 billion year on year on higher interest, treasury and fee-based earnings.
This brought the bank’s annualized return on average equity to 15.64 percent, the bank told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.
RCBC expanded its total operating income by 28.53 percent to P5.61 billion as net interest income grew by 6.11 percent to P2.7 billion year on year. Non-interest income grew at a faster pace of 60 percent, mainly supported by trading gains, exchange income and trust fees which totaled P1.92 billion or 66 percent of total non-interest income.
The bank expanded its loan book by 19.65 percent to P185.7 billion.
About 73.38 percent of its deposit base was lent out by the bank.
On the funding side, total deposits reached P237.82 billion as the bank continued to focus on growing its low-cost current account/savings account (Casa) deposits. As Casa deposits grew by 20.11 percent, the ratio of the low-cost accounts to total deposits improved to 60.52 percent from 55.97 percent in the same period last year.
Despite competitive pressures, RCBC said it had maintained its net interest margin at 3.7 percent.
Total consolidated resources reached P337.79 billion compared to P310.59 billion in the same period last year.
On asset quality, the bank’s nonperforming loans dropped as a ratio of total loans to 1.44 percent from 3.34 percent in the previous year. NPL provisioning coverage stood at 113.51 percent.
RCBC’s capital funds grew by 15.37 percent to P 41.73 billion year on year, resulting in a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 18.11 percent, with much leeway for asset growth from the minimum regulatory requirement of 10 percent. Counting only the core or tier 1 capital, the CAR stood at 13.5 percent compared to the 6 percent minimum required by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
As of end-March, the bank had 392 branches and 841 automated teller machines. For every P1 earned, it spent about 56.5 centavos, improving its efficiency from the 62.34 percent cost-to-income ratio in the same period last year. It earmarked P668 million for loan-loss provisions in the first quarter.—Doris C. Dumlao