Metrobank income up 28% in 2019
Credit to Author: Mayvelin U. Caraballo, TMT| Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2020 16:51:58 +0000
LISTED Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.’s (Metrobank) audited consolidated net profit rose to P28.1 billion last year on the back of improved operating revenues.
In a disclosure on Thursday, the lender said the amount was a 27.7-percent improvement from the P22 billion netted in 2018.
Its operating revenues were boosted by moderate loan growth and margin expansion, strong trading and foreign exchange gains, double-digit increase in fee-based income, and manageable cost growth.
An overall robust deposit growth of 10 percent to P1.7 trillion drove the bank’s current account/savings account (CASA) to accelerate by 12 percent.
As such, Metrobank closed 2019 with an improved 63-percent CASA ratio, providing liquidity to support loan growth of 7 percent to P1.5 trillion.
“Aligned with continued Philippine economic expansion, the rise in credit demand was driven by the commercial segment’s 7-percent increase, as well as sustained consumer lending growth led by the 23-percent jump in the credit cards business,” it pointed out.
The lender’s net interest income expanded 12 percent to P77.0 billion, accounting for 72 percent of the its total revenues of P106.9 billion, bringing net interest margin to 3.84 percent.
On top of a favorable financial market environment, Metrobank said higher customer flows in fixed income and foreign exchange benefited its non-interest income to rise 26 percent to P29.9 billion.
The bank’s service fees and commissions grew 12 percent to P14.3 billion, while trading and foreign exchange gains more than tripled to P9.3 billion.
“With the bank’s continued focus on improving efficiency and productivity, operating expense grew at a manageable level of 8 percent,” it added.
Coupled with relatively strong revenue growth for the period, this led to an improvement in the cost-to-income ratio to 55 percent from 58 percent in 2018, Metrobank noted.
It said modest portfolio growth ensured adherence to the lender’s credit standards and sustained better-than-industry asset quality metrics, with non-performing loans (NPL) ratio at 1.3 percent from 1.5 percent in September 2019.
Metrobank also said it allotted P10.1 billion in provisions for credit and impairment losses, further improving NPL cover to 103 percent from 96 percent last quarter.
Lastly, the bank reported that its consolidated assets and equity stood at P2.5 trillion and P309.6 billion, respectively.
Its total capital adequacy ratio was at 17.5 percent with common equity tier 1 ratio of 16.2 percent, comfortably above regulatory requirements.
Metrobank shares increased by P1.60 or 2.71 percent to close at P60.60 each on Thursday.