BPI Family Savings eyes 20% growth in 2007

The BPI Family Savings Bank is looking to expand its net earnings by another 15 to 20 percent this year, bouyed by strong deposit and lending growth.

The thrift bank of the Ayala group recorded a net income of P1.1 billion last year from strong deposits from its best seller Get Started, and double digit growth in its lending portfolio. However, loan loss provisioning in the same period grew by an additional P400 million over 2005.

"The bank’s total loan portfolio expanded to P55 billion or 12 percent better than the previous year," BPI Family Savings Bank president Alfonso L. Salcedo Jr. said.

Salcedo admitted that competition is almost cutthroat in intensity especially in the consumer lending.

Corporate lending requirements have been almost nil forcing commercial banks to aggressive court the consumer market, the traditional turf of the thrift and rural banking sector.

And with the improving property sector plus a low interest rate environment, home lending has become the craze while the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector has received an avalanche of loan offers from all sectors of the country’s banking system.

The SME has also been the traditional client base of the thrift and rural banking sector until the economy weakened and the corporates found it prudent to tap its own resources.

Meanwhile, BPI Family Savings reported that deposits last year reached P81 billion or 28 percent better than the previous year. Likewise, assets rose to P91 billion, up 21 percent.

Last year, lending to the housing sector grew to P24 billion, and roughly P7.5 billion each for auto and SME sector.

Salcedo said that a 15- to 20-percent growth in the lending is also in the horizon this year.

"The momentum for growth has strong legs," the BPI Family Savings Bank chief executive said. "We see strong nationwide growth. The unit price for properties and housing units are going down."

Yet Salcedo stressed that there is no bubble in the property sector as buyers are end users not speculators. Strongest among the buyers or endusers are beneficiaries of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) or migrant Filipinos (MFs).

BPI Family Savings also increased its ability to evaluate extensively its SME market with the expansion of its business centers.

"We now have the ability to evaluate the SME accounts in the absence of a credible nationwide credit information system. We have eight business centers nationwide to cater to the SMEs," Salcedo said, adding that SME borrowings would likely grow by at least five percent this year.