One Network Bank’s assets hit P4.37B in Jan-April

DAVAO CITY – One Network Bank (ONB) has reported total assets of P4.37 billion as of the first four months of the year.

ONB’s total resources places it on top of the heap in the rural banking system and 14th overall among the country’s thrift banks.

It has 340,000 depositors and 70,000 borrowers serviced by its 62 branches Mindanao-wide. ONB has 41 automated teller machines (ATMs) of which five are offsite and 17 are satelitte fed. Its ATM card base totalled 34,000.

It owns the eighth largest fleet of ATMs under the Megalink network, competing head-on with the ATM facilities of leading commercial and thrift banks in the country.

In fact, ONB may be the first rural bank to become an equity partner of Megalink, presently dominated by commercial banks.

ONB is the largest rural bank in the country with total loans of P2.6 billion as of end April this year. Total deposits hit P3 billion with savings reaching P1.6 billion.

"We want to expand our ATM card base to 170,000 by 2007, and our branch network to 70 in the same period," Alex V. Buenaventura, ONB president said after the bank’s third annual stockholders meeting at the Davao Trade and Convention Center (DAVCON) last week.

In fact, the rural bank declared dividends worth P171.4 million, with P164.1 million in stock dividends and P7.3 million in the form of cash.

Net income as of end April stood at P209 million from P119 million in the same period last year. Full year 2006 net earnings target is P230 million.

In the same period, ONB wants to increase its capital base to P1 billion.

However, ONB clarified that it was not looking at establishing a presence outside of Mindanao at least for the next five years.

ONB vice chairman Atonio P. Avelino stressed that there are still 35 municipalities in Mindanao that are under banked or without a legitimate banking institution.

"Nothing can be laid claim that the money we get in Mindanao is brought somewhere outside of Mindanao," Avelino said. Last year, ONB was ranked among the top five taxpayers by the regional district office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

At the end of April this year, investments in bonds and other debt instruments (IBODI) zoomed to P376.7 million.

Its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at a robust 19 percent. Last year, the rural banking industry recorded an average CAR of 17 percent.

Its non-performing asset (NPA) ratio stood at 7.86 percent end April versus the 9.78 percent end December 2005. The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio to the total loan portfolio stood at seven percent.

ONB has linked up with various bank and non-banking institutions with domestic and overseas operations for the remittance business. It has alliances with Banco de Oro Universal Bank (BdO), the Philippine National Bank (PNB), Peragram, the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), Equitable PCI Bank, PetNet, MoneyGram, and UniTeller.

Mindanao reportedly accounts for roughly $4 billion in remittance business of the $8.6-billion recorded in 2004.

ONB is the first rural bank to get the nod of the Philippine Clearing House Corp. (PCHC) for its first-ever checking account.

Dealing directly with PCHC, instead of a commercial bank acting as clearing bank, speeds up and expedites clearing of its own checking account. It also unlocks two-thirds of the reserve deposit block with the commecial bank thus allowing ONB to reallocate for lending.

ONB is a product of a historic consolidation between three rural banks based in Mindanao. One Network Rural Bank is a three-way consolidation between Network Rural Bank (Davao del Sur) Inc., the Rural Bank of Panabo (Davao del Norte) Inc., and the Provident Rural Bank of Cotabato (North Cotabato) Inc.