DBP president Remedios Macalincag said they expect a full year net income of P1.6 billion or 9.6 percent higher than the bank’s 2000 net income of P1.46 billion.
"Positive earnings for the months of January to June were attributed to high interest earnings, high cash flow recovery and a 25-percent increase in loan portfolio," Macalincag said.
The bank has a non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio of 8.8 percent, one of the lowest in the banking industry. Even then, DBP had to set aside a loan-loss provisioning of P800 million. If this amount was added to the bank’s net income, its result for the first semester would have been an impressive P1.6 billion.
The DBP also reported a slight increase in its deposit base, which grew from P29.2 billion in the first half last year to P31.6 billion this year.
Meanwhile, the DBP is asking the Department of Finance (DOF) for exemption from a rule requiring government financial institutions (GFIs) to remit 50 percent of their earnings in the form of dividends to the National Government.
This is not the first time that DBP is asking for such an exemption. Macalincag said the NG allowed the DBP to remit only 13 percent in 1999 to enable the bank to continue servicing its lending programs.
Macalincag said they are seeking another exemption for the same reason.
This time, however, industry sources said the NG may not agree considering that it needs to raise revenues to achieve its 2001 budget deficit target of P145 billion.