Metrobank net income up 65% in Q3

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), the country’s largest bank, registered a net income of P791.28 million during the third quarter of the year, up by 65 percent from the year ago level of P480.05 million.

The uptick in the third quarter was driven by trading gains in the debt and foreign exchange markets. The bank was benefiting from investments in government securities.

Also, the bank’s interest expense had been cut to P2.67 billion from P5.94 billion, partly due to the cost-savings benefits from the merger of its operations with consumer banking arm, Global Business Bank.

Based on a quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, interest income of Metrobank fell 25.62 percent for the period July to September this year to P5.11 billion while other income grew 68 percent to P1.94 billion.

Analysts are confident that Metrobank can meet its full-year 2002 earnings target of P3 billion to P3.5 billion after a robust third quarter performance.

For the first six months of the year, profits of Metrobank jumped 50 percent to P1.54 billion.

Metrobank’s decision to sell its over P16-billion worth of non-performing loans to Rabo Nederland, is also expected to boost the bank’s net income in the fourth quarter of the year. Rabobank is the third largest Dutch bank.

Rabobank is a triple-A rated bank and is one of the top 100 banks in the world based on a recent Euromoney survey. It has been particularly active in purchasing NPLs in the Asian region, especially in Indonesia where it has acquired the NPL assets from Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.

It formed Asia Recovery Corp., an asset management company that will handle the recently-acquired NPLs of Metrobank. This is the first AMC to be created by the private sector to solve the banking industry’s growing problem on NPLs.

As of end-June this year, Metrobank has a total 505 financial services through its local and international branches. It provides services to a wide base of individual clients and middle-market business and leading Philippine and multinational corporations.

It provides a host of deposit, savings and loan products as well as electronic banking and phone banking. Its overseas branch network has allowed it to service the fund remittances of countless Filipino overseas contract workers.

Metrobank was established in 1962 in Binondo, Manila by a group of businessmen led by George S.K. Ty, who is currently the bank’s chairman of the board and single biggest shareholder.