Thrift bank’s 2015 profit hits P2.35B

FILE PHOTO

The Metrobank group’s thrift bank arm Philippine Savings Bank posted a net profit of P2.35 billion in 2015, slightly up from the level in the previous year.

This translated to a return-on-average equity of 12.7 percent as the bank grew its core businesses, PSBank disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Last year’s net profit was deemed stable compared to the P2.32 billion bottomline in the previous year.

PSBank president Vicente Cuna Jr. said: “2015 proved to be a challenging year for the bank, but we continued to gain momentum in our core businesses as our net interest margins and fees from our consumer loans demonstrated double-digit growth.”

“Our strategy is aimed at expanding our customer base by providing clients the best customer experience at every encounter, at every channel. This strategy has brought us to where we are today and I am confident that the same strategy will solidify our growth in the coming years,” he added.

The bank’s total loan portfolio rose by about 17 percent to end the year at P116 billion, propelled by the growth of its auto and mortgage lending businesses, which posted a combined annual increase of 24 percent.

On the funding side, deposits expanded by 15 percent to P134 billion, with low-cost funds climbing by 23 percent. The bank said its deposit-taking initiatives focused on new customer acquisition and active cross-selling, citing its commitment to provide customers with products that cater to their banking needs.

On asset quality, the bank’s non-performing loans were kept at 1.2 percent of total loan portfolio as of end-2015.

PSBank’s capital adequacy ratio, a measure of a bank’s financial strength and resilience to risk assets, stood at 18 percent or well-above the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ 10 percent minimum requirement. Its core or tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was at 12.4 percent of risk assets. TVJ