Metrobank profit hits P9.1 B
Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), the banking arm of taipan George Ty, continued to make strides in its core business expansion with net earnings hitting P9.1 billion in the first half of the year.
“Overall, we are pleased with our earnings results. Despite the volatility in the global financial markets, local elections and heightened competition, we managed to accelerate our performance in our core business, particularly lending, low cost deposit generation and fee income,” said Metrobank president Fabian Dee.
“More importantly, our margins held steady in the face of the challenging environment. We are also confident that given our strong capital, we are best positioned to take advantage of the country’s growth opportunities,” Dee added.
Leveraging on the strength of its balance sheet, Metrobank expanded net loans and receivables by 24 percent year-onyear to P920.5 billion.
The commercial segment accelerated by 27 percent as the bank continued to support the business expansion plans and infrastructure spending of local conglomerates, while the consumer segment sustained strong volume growth of 17 percent.
Low cost deposits grew 21 percent, faster than industry’s 13 percent growth rate in overall deposits as of May 2016. This improved the bank’s CASA ratio to 61 percent of the total P1.3 trillion deposit base.
Despite the market volatility and competitive pressures, net interest margin held steady at 3.5 percent as a result of the robust growth in low cost deposits as well as loan expansion in its target segments.
The bank realized P25.6 billion in net interest income, accounting for two-thirds of the total operating income.
Non-interest income reached P12.5 billion driven by stronger contributions in treasury related services and fee income.
Metrobank booked P3.6 billion in trading and foreign exchange gains, P5.2 billion in service charges, fees and bank commissions, and P3.8 billion in miscellaneous income.
Operating expenses rose 12.4 percent to P21.8 billion as it continued to hire new staff to improve customer coverage and made additional investments in technology and business process reengineering to improve efficiency.
Even as lending activities continued to accelerate, the bank’s asset quality metrics remained better than industry average. Metrobank reported provisions for credit and impairment losses of P3.2 billion.
Metrobank ended the first half with consolidated assets of P1.7 trillion, and equity at P198.2 billion. Total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) on a Basel III basis remained well above the regulatory limit, and highest among peers at 17.8 percent with Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio at 14.6 percent.
During the six-month period, Metrobank opened nine branches and installed 59 new automated teller machines nationwide, bringing the consolidated total to 954 and 2,285, respectively.