In a disclosure to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the bank reported a net income of P133 million, slightly better than that P127 million recorded in the same period last year.
Assuming a consistent growth, the bank is projected to have a full-year net income of P500 million, slightly higher than the P427 million registered in 2001.
Security Bank president Rafael F. Simpao said in an earlier interview that the bank is not expecting a dramatic income growth in 2002 due to poor economic conditions and the conservative nature of the bank.
Simpao said a single-digit growth will be welcome while a low double-digit growth will be considered exceptional.
After loan-loss provisioning, bank registered an unaudited net income of P427 million last year, a little over one percent higher than the P421 billion registered in 2000. The bank set aside a total of P1.008 billion for loan-loss provisioning. Its non-performing loans (NPL) ratio is 11.7 percent.
Operating income rose 91 percent from P745 million in 2000 to P1.4 billion last year.
"The gains were realized from securities trading while the improving operating efficiencies resulted in a five-percent decline in operating expertise," the SEC report said. "That translated to savings in operating costs amounting to P29 million and a significant improvement in the bank’s cost to income ratio to 51 percent from 64 percent in the previous year’s." – Ted Torres