Robinsons Savings income up 75%

Robinsons Savings Bank (RSB) income soared 75 percent to P130 million for year 2002, from P74 million the previous year. This translates into a return on equity (ROE) of 17.4 percent pushing RSB to the second highest thrift banks in terms of ROE.

RSB also had the lowest non-performing loans (NPL) ratio of 3.64 percent among top thrift banks and boasts of a high NPL cover of 82 percent. Total resources more than tripled to P6.235 billion while deposits grew almost five times ending the year at P4.886 billion.

"The solid increase in income came at the heels of a well contained integration cost when the branches we acquired from ABN AMRO Savings Bank were put on stream," said Reynold Y. Gerongay, president of RSB.

"Our goal is to become a formidable player in consumer banking; this will certainly leverage our parent company’s [JG Summit Holdings] other retail businesses. But given this economic climate the challenge for us moving forward is to cautiously deploy funds to higher yielding assets without losing sight of good credit judgment," Gerongay added.

RSB acquired 20 branches from ABN AMRO Savings Bank last June 2002 bringing RSB’s total branch network to 27.

RSB intends to open five more branches this year and go full blast on consumer lending. RSB offers housing loans, auto loans, and personal loans. It will soon launch in its in-house credit card accepted in all Robinsons malls nationwide.