EastWest 9-mo profit up 43% to P4.6B

Credit to Author: Mayvelin U. Caraballo, TMT| Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 16:46:00 +0000

LISTED East West Banking Corp. (EastWest Bank) is optimistic on its performance this year after posting a double-digit growth in net income for the January-to-September period.

In a disclosure on Monday, the lender reported its net profit increased by 43.74 percent to P4.6 billion in January to September this year from the P3.2 billion during the same period in 2018.

This was traced from core revenues of fees and improved margins, higher trading gains, and lower credit costs.

Revenues rose by P2.2 billion or 11 percent to P21 billion from P18.9 billion in the same period last year.

Net interest income grew by P714 million to P15.2 billion. Fees and commissions went up by 15 percent to P3.9 billion.

Securities and foreign exchange trading gains, on the other hand, was P952.8 million higher at P1.4 billion for the first nine months of the year.

EastWest Bank added its net income translated to a return on equity of 14 percent.
Its total assets grew by 15 percent to P387.3 billion.

“While EastWest has yet to realize its full potential from its past investments, we are on track to have our most profitable year,” EastWest Chief Executive Officer Tony Moncupa said.

“We are grateful for the continued support of our customers and the hard work of EWBankers. With their backing, we are confident that EastWest will continue to grow and maintain its position among the most profitable banks in the industry,” he added.

Meanwhile, consumer loans boosted its total loans to grow by 13 percent to end at P261.5 billion.

EastWest also said its net interest margin in the third quarter of the year was 6.6 percent, slightly better from the two previous quarters of 6.5 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

Total deposits grew by 10 percent to P291.6 billion, with current account/savings account deposits growing by 16 percent from the previous year.

Its operating expenses, excluding provisions for losses, meantime, increased by 11 percent to ₱12.3 billion.

“This was mainly due to business-related expenses and intensified marketing acquisition campaigns to generate more loans and retail deposits,” the bank explained.

EastWest’s cost-to-income ratio remained stable at 59 percent.

More seasoned consumer portfolio dragged its provisions for losses by 15 percent from the previous year to P2.7 billion, it added.

“We are proud to see our consumer-led business model works,” EastWest President and Deputy Chief Executive Officer Bobby Reyes said.

EastWest Bank shares rose by 50 centavos or 3.88 percent to end at P13.38 each on Monday.

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