RIZAL Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) on Wednesday announced a double-digit growth in its net profit in the first three months of the year, owing largely to strong growth in both interest and noninterest income for the period.
The bank posted an unaudited consolidated net income of P1.3 billion for the first quarter of 2019, or 15 percent higher than the P1.1 billion reported for the same period last year.
Net interest income of RCBC grew 10 percent to P5.3 billion in the first quarter of 2019, coming mainly from the growth in the average loan portfolio of key select markets. Loans to small and medium enterprises (SME) grew by 12 percent to P53.8 billion.
Meanwhile, consumer loans —which include mortgage loans, automobile loans and credit cards —increased by 12 percent to P106.9 billion. The bank’s gross outstanding credit-card receivables accelerated by 31 percent to P22.3 billion for the quarter, with an active card base of 733,000, higher by 22 percent against the same period last year.
Noninterest income for the quarter increased by 71 percent to P2.9 billion, with the bank attributing the strong rise to stronger contributions in treasury-related and fee-based income. RCBC also reported that it booked P1.4 billion in trading and foreign-exchange gains and P1.1 billion in fee-based income.
“We have continued to build on balance sheet strength, with assets of P665 billion supported by P83 billion of capital, as we focus on growing our core business. The process for the merger of RCBC Savings Bank with RCBC is underway and is planned to commence in the second half of 2019,” RCBC President and CEO Gil Buenaventura said.
The bank recently issued a peso green bond amounting to P15 billion under its recently established green finance framework. The issuance was oversubscribed, tripling to P15 billion from the initial P5 billion.