PSBank reports P1.38-B profit in 1st half of 2012

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank), the thrift bank of the Metrobank group, grew its first semester net profit by 50 percent to P1.38 billion year-on-year on the back of investment gains and strong loan portfolio growth.

In a press statement on Tuesday, PSBank said its gross loans rose by 14 percent year-on-year to P67 billion, with double-digit growth rates coming from its consumer loans as well as large enterprises group. More specifically, auto and mortgage lending grew by 15 percent and 14 percent, respectively, due to higher demand and improved penetration of PSBank’s branch, dealer and developer channels. Top tier corporate lending likewise went up by 28 percent year-on-year.

“We are pleasantly surprised by the strength of loan demand, particularly for mortgage loans. New loan releases for acquisition of houses and condominiums have surged by 50 percent from last year. If this pace holds up in the second half, our loan portfolio will be 18 to 20 percent higher than previous year,” PSBank president Pascual Garcia III said.

“However, while loan demand is robust, margins are declining due to competitive loan pricing by banks. This, coupled with less trading opportunities, may moderate profit growth in the second half,” he added.

Net revenue in the first six months jumped to P5.9 billion or a P2.2 billion increase compared to the comparative period last year as the bank recognized gains from its investments in government securities as well as a 7-percent growth in its interest income on loans.

In the first six months, PSBank’s deposit base grew by P7 billion from the previous year. The bank expanded its distribution network by opening 11 additional branches during the period, thus increasing its branch network to 211. PSBank further expanded its ATM (automated teller machine) network and now has 520 onsite and offsite ATMs all over the country.

The bank’s capital also went up by 15 percent to P14.3 billion. Capital adequacy ratio is higher at 17.96 percent while its tier 1 capital ratio is at 14.15 percent — above the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ proposed limits of 12.5 percent and 8.5 percent respectively under the more stringent Basel 3 capital adequacy ratio.

PSBank set aside provisions amounting to P1.1 billion for the first six months of the year to strengthen its balance sheet. Coverage ratio thus improved to 103 percent even as its non-performing loan ratio had gone down to only 3 percent of its loan portfolio.

PSBank was recently recognized as a “silver” awardee by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) for being one of the top scoring publicly listed companies in the 2011 corporate governance scorecard. The bank was the only savings bank from among 23 silver awardees.