A ranking official of Aboitiz banking arm, Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), expects a good income turnout for the bank this 2019 on sustained drop of inflation and interest rates.
In a briefing by Aboitiz officials on their third-quarter 2019 performance Wednesday, UnionBank chief financial officer (CFO) Jose Emmanuel Hilado said sustained deceleration of rate of price increases bodes well for domestic interest rates.
“We expect good performance until the end of the year,” he said.
After peaking at 6.7 percent in September and October last year, inflation decelerated to 0.8 percent last October, with the 10-month average at 2.6 percent, at the lower half of the government’s 2- percent to 4-percent target.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) slashed its key rates by a total of 75 basis points after hiking it by a total of 175 basis points last year to address inflation expectations.
In the first nine months this year, UnionBank and its subsidiaries registered a 40-percent increase in net income to PHP8.5 billion compared to the PHP6.1 billion in end-September 2018.
The rise was attributed to the double-digit growth of earnings asset and trading gains.
Total assets as of last September reached PHP685.8 billion, higher than year-ago’s PHP643 billion.
Total loans rose 10 percent year-on-year to PHP346.3 billion on credit card receivables, consumers’ loans, small and medium enterprise (SME) banking, and commercial loans.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Hilado said net interest margins in the third quarter increased by 100 basis points compared to the figures at the start of the year.
“Our digital transformation plans are ahead of schedule. We recorded solid growth across the different business segments. CitySavings also stabilized –delivering around PHP15 billion in salary loan releases and 9,000 motorcycle units during the third quarter,” he said.
“We are fortunate that the substantial improvement in margins and trading gains from favorable market conditions have converged,” he added. (PNA)
