PSBank earns 8.1% more in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank), the thrift banking arm of the Metrobank Group, reported an 8.1-percent growth in its net income on the back of strong lending and deposit growth.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PSBank said its net income as of end-September rose to P2 billion from the P1.88 billion recorded in the same period last year.

This translated to a return-on-equity of 11.7 percent and return-on-assets of 1.2 percent.

According to the bank, its net interest income from January to September increased by 5.6 percent to P8.7 billion, while net service fees rose 10.2 percent to P1.1 billion.

Total loan portfolio also expanded by 8.1 percent year-on-year to P153.9 billion, supported by deposits, which rose 7.2 percent to P197.7 billion.

The bank’s total assets stood at P231.1 billion as of September.

PSBank said its capital adequacy ratio was at 13.8 percent, while common equity tier 1 ratio was at 11.1 percent, both above the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ minimum requirement.

 “Our steadfast commitment in providing excellent customer service via innovation provided us the resiliency and sustainability to be able to maintain growth despite industry challenges,” PSBank president Jose Vicente Alde said.

“Innovation emanates from the understanding that there is always a better way to do things, and that is what PSBank is committed to do. We have done it for our consumer loans, offering the fastest turn-around time in the industry and in our digital and mobile channels with their cutting-edge features. The culture of innovation drives us to continuously create opportunities to better serve our customers,” he said.

Recently, the PSBank board of directors approved a common stock rights offering, which is expected to raise about P8 billion in fresh capital. The bank targets to conduct the issuance in the first quarter of 2019. The activity aims to support the expected growth of the bank.

Aside from this, the country’s second largest thrift bank in terms of assets has lined up several fund raising activities to further boost its consumer banking business.

It has announced plans to issue medium-term fixed or floating rate notes worth as much as P10 billion to access medium-term and stable funding as it further expands its consumer banking segment.