THE Philippine National Bank (PNB) reported higher net profit in the first three months of the year, owing largely to its fee-based income for the period.
In a disclosure, the bank said it recorded a net income of P1.8 billion, 34 percent higher than the P1.3 billion net income in the same period last year.
Broken down, the bank’s service fees and commission income increased by 300 million or 34.6 percent to P1.3 billion for the three months of the year from P961.5 million last year. The bank attributed this to higher credit card-related fees and underwriting fees.
Its net interest income, meanwhile, amounted to P8.2 billion, lower by 6.7 percent compared to the same period last year.
The bank’s total interest income decreased by 17.3 percent to P10.4 billion from P12.6 billion in the first quarter last year. PNB said this is due to lower yields on loans and receivables, trading and investment securities and interbank receivables.
Its total interest expense decreased to P2.1 billion from P3.7 billion for the same period last year primarily due to reduction in levels of high-cost deposits as compared to the same period last year.
The bank also reported a capital adequacy ratio of 14.77 percent, higher than the 14.72 percent CAR level of the bank in the first quarter of 2020. It is also above the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s minimum requirement of a 10 percent CAR for banks.
Its Tier-1 ratio also improved at 14.11 percent in the first quarter of the year, from the 13.8 percent seen in the same period in 2020.
Just last month, the bank announced its issuance of property dividends to its stockholders. The bank said its board approved the declaration of shares of PNB Holdings Corp. as property dividends effective May 18 this year.
Property dividends occur when a company declares and distributes assets other than cash, such as shares of stocks in a company’s subsidiary or affiliate or tangible products of the company.