METROPOLITAN Bank & Trust Co.’s booked a 35.6 percent year-on-year growth to P31.8 billion in its net income for the nine months that ended September 2023, driven by the bank’s asset expansion, improving margins, and healthy non-interest income growth as asset quality continued to improve.

This translated to a return on equity of 12.8 percent, higher than the 10 percent recorded in the same period last year.

In the third quarter alone, the bank posted a robust 38.7 percent growth in net earnings to P10.9 billion from the same period last year.

The bank’s net interest income surged by 24.4 percent to P77.2 billion, on the back of higher margins.