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PHILIPPINE Savings Bank posted an 18-percent drop in its
net income for the first half of the year on lower
trading gains, the bank said in a disclosure to the
Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.
The bank
said the drop in profit for the first semester was
caused by a 13- percent decline in net revenues, or P2.4
billion from P2.7 billion posted in the same period last
year.
It said
the decrease in revenues was caused by an 81-percent
drop in trading gains.
“The
decline is expected, coming from spectacular trading
gains last year vis-a-vis the lack of trading
opportunities in the first half of the year,” PS Bank
president Pascual Garcia III said in the disclosure.
Garcia
said, however, that the bank’s core business remained
“strong” during the first half of the year, with
interest income from loans jumping 16 percent to P2.3
billion from P1.9 billion from the first half of 2007.
Its loan portfolio rose to P39 billion from P33.7
billion last year.
The
bank’s personal-loans portfolio posted the biggest
increase of 40 percent year-on-year to P3.7 billion from
P2.7 billion. Mortgage loans grew 24 percent to P13.4
billion, while auto loans increased by 17 percent to
P14.9 billion.
“We
continue to benefit from the growth trend in the
consumer-loans sector with positive results for our
auto, mortgage and personal loans. Our commercial-loans
portfolio declined largely due to the reduction of the
bank’s exposure to large corporate accounts,” he
explained.
“I am
very pleased with the results for the first half of the
year given the difficult economic scenario that we are
facing right now. From my own perspective, we are much
stronger than last year when the bank benefited from
good trading results,” he said.
Total
assets as of June stood at P68.8 billion, 8 percent
higher than P63.6 billion a year earlier.
Total
deposits grew 5 percent to P56.2 billion in the first
half of the year.
The bank
said time deposits with shorter tenors have been reduced
and 33 percent of their deposits are now longer tenors.
Garcia said the bank plans to increase longer-term
deposits to 50 percent.
Its net
interest income grew 7 percent to P1.8 billion and its
other operating income went down by 44 percent as the
bank “lessened its dependence” on treasury gains.
Earlier
this year, PSBank’s Tier 1 capital increased by P2
billion through a rights offer that brought its capital-
adequacy ratio to 17 percent against the 10-percent
regulation. Its nonperforming-loan ratio remained low at
5.21 percent as of June 2008, from 6.25 percent a year
earlier. |
