GE Money Bank eyes 60% growth in SME, consumer lending

GE Money Bank is looking to expand its (consumer & SME) loan portfolio by 60 percent, or from P4 billion to P6.6 billion end 2008.

For its personal loan portfolio, the two-year old thrift and savings bank wants it to grow from P200 million at the start of 2008 to P700 million by the end of the year.

“GE Money Bank is a consumers’ bank, thus we will place bigger emphasis on systems and products for the consumer,’ Alan David L. Matutina, senior vice president for GE Money Savings said.

One of the reasons why  General Electric (GE) acquired Keppel Bank Philippines in late 2005, its loan portfolio was already biased in favor of the consumer, or 80 percent of its loan portfolio.

At the start of 2008, consumer banking lending accounted for 40 percent of the portfolio while the remaining 60 percent went to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector.

Matutina said that by 2009, there will be a reversal in market share, or 60 percent of its loan portfolio will favor the consumer segment and the remaining to SME lending.

The same is true also for its branch network which presently stands at 30. Of the total. only 11 are located within Metro Manila. Five branches are located in the Visayas, three more in Mindanao and another three in Southern Luzon.

To fulfill its goal of reaching out to the consumer market, GE Money wants to open another 20 branches in the next two years or an average of 10 per year. And since branch expansion has been fully liberalized in areas outside Metro Manila, the only limit for banks is its ability to put up its bricks and mortar.

The bank officials said that while they prefer to grow organically, “GE Money is always open to anything, any offer that is reasonable.” Other banks opted to acquire existing thrift or rural banks for its branch expansion strategies.

It presently operates 31 automated teller machines (ATMs) of which 11 are offsite (located in non-branch sites such as malls).

GE Money’s consumer banking products are focused on the mortgage, automobile, credit cards, and personal loans. Mortgage loans account for the largest chunk of consumer loans followed by auto, cards and personal loans.

By next year, it will shift slightly in favor of personal loans over auto and card portfolios.

GE  Money recently launched a first-of-its-kind personal loan product which offers a loan interest rebate, or win prices for making the personal loans. Last year, it also offered raffle prices to depositors, most of which were GE appliances and products. — Ted Torres