PSBank income up 57% to P475.4 million in 1st quarter

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) recorded a net income of P475.43 million in the first three months of 2010, an increase of 57 percent from the P303 million realized in the same period last year.

In a statement, the bank said net interest income grew 13 percent to P1.18 billion during the first three months of 2010 while other operating income surged 77 percent due to higher trading gains and fees from deposit and loan transactions.

PSBank president Pascual M. Garcia III said their consumer loans grew, led by the expansion in auto loans.

“Moreover, consumers seem to be more confident this year. We anticipate that the conduct of an orderly and credible election in May will drive consistent strong demand the rest of the year,” Garcia said.

He noted that their loan portfolio further grew 13 percent to P49.96 billion due to an across-the-board increase in loan products led by auto and mortgage loans, which increased 19 percent and nine percent, respectively.

Interest income from loans grew to P1.37 billion or eight percent more than last year.

In terms of capital, PSBank still leads the country’s thrift banks with P10.86 billion as of March 2010. Its risk-based capital adequacy ratio (CAR) improved to 15.69 percent from 14.92 percent a year ago.

Non-performing loans (NPL) ratio, net of fully provided loans, went down to 4.98 percent in the first three months of 2010 from 5.42 percent a year ago. During the quarter, it set aside P374 million in loan loss provisions which allowed its NPL coverage ratio to improve to 77.05 percent from 62.68 percent in March 2009.

The thrift bank of the Metrobank Group of Companies opened three more branches during the first quarter of the year, bringing the total number to 173 nationwide.

 These new branches are located in Cebu, Pangasinan and Las Pinas. It also added 10 new offsite ATMs and ended the quarter with 320 ATMs in its network. 

Analysts estimate that PSBank would be able to register a net income of P1.5 billion in 2010, from the P1.1 billion recorded in 2009.

Garcia earlier told The STAR that they are looking at a modest P1.35 billion net earnings this year.

“2009 was better-than-anticipated, and it disproved most of the doomsday scenario of foreign analysts,” the bank president said.

 “We have strengthened our balance sheet in an anticipation of a stronger 2010. In fact, we have increased our NPL cover to 70 percent from the previous 65 percent,” he added.