Saturday, January 26, 2008 Metrobank bares increase in income
METROBANK subsidiary Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) on Friday reported that its net income for the year 2007 jumped 23 percent as compared a year ago.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), PSBank president Pascual Garcia said their unaudited income reached P1.008 billion higher than the P819 million posted in 2006.
The company's total net revenues also grew by P772 million, an increase of 19 percent from the previous year while net interest income went up by 15 percent and non-interest and fee-based income rose by 26 percent.
"The bank's income growth was driven by the 22 percent increase in interest income from consumer loans -- namely auto, mortgage and personal loans, as well as higher earnings from investment securities," Garcia said.
There has been continued build-up of PSBank loans in 2007, which grew 16 percent to P36.4 billion.
Last year, PSBank launched a 24-hour Siguraduhan campaign for Auto Loans and strengthened the TGIF program, which guarantees five-day turnaround time for credit decisions on mortgage applications.
PSBank also introduced the enhanced Money Card, the first and only collateral free personal loan in an automated teller machine (ATM) card with a revolving line and a fixed term loan facility.
Also, the company said their operating expenses also climbed by 26 percent after the bank availed of the government's tax amnesty program under Republic Act (RA) 9498.
"Without this additional payment, the increase would have been limited to 14 percent with continued investments in technology, launched of its Remote Banking facility and branch expansion in 2007," added Garcia.
As of December 2007, PSBank total capital was valued at P6.6 billion while it return on average equity continued to improve with 15.6 percent in 2007 from 14.4 percent in 2006.
Meanwhile, Garcia said PSBank is set to raise an additional P2 billion in Tier 1 capital through a rights offering next month.
Garcia said they will sell 38 million shares at P52.50 per share. (MSN/Sunnex)
