PSBank Registers Double-Digit Income Growth of 10.3% in First Quarter of 2019
Philippine Savings Bank (PSE: PSB), the thrift bank arm of the Metrobank Group, posted a double-digit increase of 10.3% in net income to PhP680.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 versus PhP617.0 million in the same period last year. The growth was driven by improvement in revenues from interest income, other operating income, and efficient expense management.
Interest income grew by 10.3% from PhP3.9 billion to PhP4.3 billion. Other operating income which includes net service fees registered a growth of 2.1% while operating expenses, excluding provisions for impairment and credit losses, improved 6.4% year-on-year.
Total resources expanded by 4.9% to PhP236.2 billion from PhP225.1 billion, and gross loans increased by 6.8% to PhP159.3 billion from PhP149.2 billion in the same period last year. This was bolstered primarily by the growth in the Bank’s auto and mortgage loans portfolios. Net non-performing loans ratio was kept at 3.1% as delinquency continued to improve.
On the funding side, PSBank’s total deposits was 0.6% lower at PhP185.0 billion from PhP186.0 billion the previous year as the Bank strategically rebalanced its funding strategy with emphasis on low cost funds, retail clients and alternative sources. Low-cost deposits improved by 6.6% year-on-year reaching PhP55.0 billion from PhP51.6 billion.
“The Bank’s commendable double-digit growth puts us on track of our 2019 targets, and is a deliberate result of our firm commitment to reinforce our sales efforts, improve on operating experience, “PSBank President Jose Vicente L. Alde said.
PSBank completed its PhP8.0 billion stock rights offer after the offer period closed on January 11, 2019. The offer to eligible shareholders of 142,856,925 common shares was priced at PhP56.00 per share. The rights shares were listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange on January 18, 2019.
Total Capital Adequacy and Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratios stood at 18.4% and 15.9% respectively; and are both well above the minimum required level set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
PSBank recently received an issuer rating of PRS Aaa (corp.) by the Philippine Rating Services Corporation (PhilRatings). A company-rated PRS Aaa (Corp.) has a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments relative to that of Philippine corporates. PRS Aaa (corp.) is the highest corporate credit rating assigned on the PRS scale.
To date, PSBank has a distribution network of 250 branches and over 570 ATM’s strategically located nationwide.