East West Bank set to expand

With a total of 67 operational branches and a basket of new consumer banking products, East West Banking Corp. believes it will hit its full-year net income target.

East West Bank president and chief operating officer Elrey T. Ramos said that they had opened six new branches in the past five months, and another six would be operational before the year ends, bringing the bank’s branch network to a total of 67.

The bank has another 11 branch licenses which will be utilized next year, he added. The branch licences was a result of the acquisition by East West two years ago of Ecology Bank from Equitable PCI Bank.

Full-year net income target has been set at P140 million or 66.6 percent better than the P84 million recorded in 2003.

Bank deposits as well as total assets have grown by an average 30 percent for the third consecutive year, and bank officials do not see any reason for that to change.

"The main drivers for our huge growth target this year is building more consumer products including auto, salary, and property loans on top of our branch expansion. We will start carrying MasterCard in the second half of the year," Ramos said during the formal launching of its MasterCard alliance over the weekend.

Loan portfolio grew from P11 billion last year to P13 billion this year of which P3 billion may be focused on the property sector.

Total resources reached P20 billion, or 12 percent better than the first four months of the year.

The middle market remains East West’s main clientele base for lending while its overall banking activities concentrates of the corporate accounts (50 percent), consumer and personal banking.

Non-performing loans (NPL) ratio stand at a manageable 9.7 percent versus an industry average of nearly 14 percent.

Ramos said they will not have to take the special purpose vehicle (SPV) route in disposing of the bank’s ROPOA which stands at a mere P500 million.

"We have programmed to reduce this by P200 to P250 million by end 2004 despite poor property market," the bank chief operating officer said.