Although the increase of interest rates and double-digit inflation scenario in the Philippines generated fears in the banking sector of performance slowdown in the next couple of months, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is confident to hit its 15 percent growth target in consumer loan segment.
“With the global economic difficulties, we expect a margin-pressure for the rest of the year, but we have also seen encouraging and significant growth our bank, especially for consumer banking,” said Natividad Alejo, BPI senior vice president and head for consumer banking.
In fact, she said that the bank is seeing to hit over 15 percent growth this year, amid the financial difficulties, as it has already strengthened its risk and portfolio management to brace the effect of widespread economic challenges.
BPI re-opened its Jones Avenue branch at a new building location, bringing the bank’s new physical look standard, signifying its aggressive focus on implementing customer-centric service.
In a press conference yesterday, Alejo said the rising interest rates may inject fears of pursuing borrowing plans from customers, but so far, consumer loan transactions in BPI is still encouraging, thus the bank with a total of 827 branches nationwide is confident to hit its target growth.
In terms of asset size, BPI is the third largest bank in the Philippines, next to Banco de Oro and Metrobank, but it is the largest bank in terms of number of networks or branches and market capitalization.
According to Alejo, the bank’s treasury team had already prepared to cushion the possible effect of the global economic slowdown to its business. As early as first quarter this year, the bank had fine-tuned its portfolio and risk management.
She further stressed that the rising of interest rates this time from average nine to eleven percent, is not yet considered a threat, as its level is still very low, compared to 20 percent during in the past.
“We still expect significant customer flows especially in housing, auto, credit card loans,” she added.
The strong demand for consumer banking loans achieved by the bank in the first semester of this year “will to continue for rest of the year,” she projected.
While the bank is on its constant lookout for possible bank acquisition venture, Alejo said what is important for the bank right now is to provide utmost customer relation service to clients.
Carrying a new tagline “We’ll take you farther”, BPI the oldest private bank in the Philippines , vows to forge closer relationship with its clientele, while attracting new depositors and customers.