MANILA, Philippines — Higher buffer for soured loans dragged the earnings of Ty-led Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) by five percent to P646.2 million in the first quarter from P680.7 million in the same quarter last year.
PSBank president Jose Vicente Alde said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) the listed bank increased credit provisioning due to the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic.
“Cognizant of the potential impact of the pandemic to the economy, we decided to exercise prudence by increasing provisions to 150 percent versus previous year,” Alde said.
PSBank’s provisioning jumped 53 percent to P789.1 million in the first quarter of the year from a year-ago level of P514.9 million.
He reported the bank booked a 21.8 percent jump in net interest income to P3.2 billion in the first quarter of the year, while net service fees amounted P458.1 million.
The bank’s loan book inched up by 3.6 percent to P165 billion in the first quarter from P159.3 billion in the same period last year coming from the strong demand in the first two months prior to the imposition of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.
Its gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was steady at 3.7 percent.
The bank’s low-cost deposit base booked a double-digit growth of 10.2 percent to P60.6 billion from P55 billion.
The assets of the bank reported a 1.8 percent rise in total assets to P240.3 billion from P236.2 billion.
PSBank’s balance sheet remained strong with capital of P34.8 billion. The bank’s total capital adequacy ratio of 17.2 percent from last year’s 18.4 percent is still well above the regulatory minimum of 10 percent set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
“PSBank has a strong balance sheet and capital position coming into this unprecedented situation,” Alde said.
During the quarantine period, the PSBank continued to operate 80 percent of its branches, while keeping in place precautionary measures to ensure that our customers and employees are safe.
Alde added both customer and IT support were further strengthened to keep its online banking services available 24/7.