Manila Bank solidifies spot among best TBs

The Manila Banking Corp. (Manila Bank) is on track to take a strong position among the top 10 thrift banks in the country’s banking system.

Since June 1999 when it reopened after a few years hiatus, the Puyat clan-led thrift bank has reportedly consolidated its position after six years with the remaining four years to solidify its place among the banking sector’s best players.

Already it has fully operationalized 22 branches with three more by the end of 2005. This year, it opened the BF Homes Parañaque and Morato in Quezon City with one more at Xavierville in the Katipunan area and two more within Metro Manila.

"We still have 53 unused branch licenses which we intended to use in the next few years," Manila Bank president Benjamin J. Yambao said during the formal opening of the Morato branch near the ABS-CBN complex.

Yambao categorically stated that they do not have plans of selling any of their unused branch licenses although he hinted that there are talks between the banking system and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) of lifting the branch expansion moratorium.

The BSP imposed a moratorium on branch expansion reasoning of a system that is "over-banked" that could result in undue competition detrimental to the banking public and the system itself.

Meanwhile, Manila Bank successfully kept its ROPOA (real and other properties owned or acquired) a little over P2 billion and a six-percent non-performing loan (NPL) ratio to total loan portfolio. The thirft banking sector’s average NPL ratio stood a little over 12 percent.

Yambao said that they are optimistic of reducing its ROPOA level drastically by next year despite the slowing down of the property sector.

Majority of its ROPOA were actually carried over from its operations prior to the hiatus. The valuation of the properties are extremely low making it attractive in present terms.

"There is a dearth of good borrowers," Yambao said. "But the bank has been able to dispose of its ROPOAs or are poised to to do soon."

Manila Bank forged alliances with property developers and the so-called build-and-sell entrepreneurs resulting in the conversion of the ROPOAs into loans.

"It is a scheme which worked for us well, as it has done so for the rest of the banking industry."

Yambao revealed that 90 percent of its partner developers revealed that 80 percent of its market are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families.

Meanwhile, the bank’s accumulated loan portfolio already hit P4.2 billion even as its deposit levels surpassed all expectations.

The thrift bank’s loan portfolio is divided as 30-percent in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, another 30 percent for the housing sector including individual and property developers, and program funding another 30 percent. Program funding includes those related to development loans accessed with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), and institutional and corporate loans.

Its 2005 target net income was set at P41 million, or roughly 20 percent higher than the P34 million realized in 2004.