RCBC Savings expects higher earnings this year

The RCBC Savings Bank, the thrift bank arm of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Group, expects its net earnings to increase this year despite the prevailing economic difficulties brought about by the current political crisis.

RCBC president and chief executive officer Francisco Magsajo Jr., in an interview with The STAR, said, however, that their net income for this year may be 10 percent below their target.

As of the third quarter of 2000, he said the savings bank had registered P72 million in earnings, surpassing their income of P56 million for the whole of 1999.

"We will have difficulty meeting our target for this year, but we will definitely surpass our earnings last year," he said.

Magsajo said they are focusing their attention on the operational integration of the savings bank and their mother bank, RCBC.

But, he explained that the trust of the savings bank would still be consumer banking unlike their universal banking arm which is gearing towards both consumer, corporate and institutional banking activities.

"We want to have integrated operations with our unibank arm, but our market will still be different," he said.

At present, the bank has 110 branches, after acquiring Capitol Development Bank, formerly owned by the family of former House Speaker Manuel Villar.

Its total resources amounted to about P19 billion and its total deposit liabilities reached P13 billion. Its capital stood at P1.6 billion. With these financial standing, RCBC Savings is the third largest thrift bank in terms of deposits, second in terms of loans, and fourth in terms of resources, next only to BPI Family Bank and PS Bank of the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. Group.

As of the first nine months of the year, the bank’s non-performing loans (NPLs), remained below industry’s average at 9.2 percent.