UNITED Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB)'s income grew by 19 percent to P1.14 billion in the firsst quarter of 2018 from P958 million in the same period last year.
"The double-digit earning growth reflects the strng performance of the bank's lending, deposit-taking, bancassurance, and fee-based operations in the first three months of the year," Higinio Macadaeg, Jr., UCPB president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
In a press statement, UCPB said its loan portfolio by the end of March 2018 grew by 12 percent to 173.35 billion from 155.02 billion in the same period last year.
During the Operation Smile press conference yesterday at Brokenshire College, Davao City, Macadaeg said a bulk of the loans remain to be be commercial loans wherein their clients are mainly coming from the middle market, which includes family-owned businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
"In the case of the consumer loans, mostly are real estate loans and auto-loans," he said.
The bank said it booked P6.5 billion of new consumer loans in the first quarter of the year as it continued to leverage its 188 branches nationwide to take advantage of the sustained demand for housing, auto, and personal loans, and to generate more deposits.
"Higher loan volume and better margins increased net interest income during the period by P108 million to P2.84 billion, up nearly 4% from year-ago levels," the bank said.
Meanwhile, UCPB said deposits also rose by 9 percent to P278.04 billion.
UCPB also said its non-interest income also increased by 20 percent to P743 million. Non-interest income comes from higher service charges, fees and commisions, foreign exchange gain, and bancassurance revenues.
While bulk of the bank's income is coming from loans, Macadaeg said they have diversifed their revenue source since loans carries a lot of risk. One the bank's revenue source aside from loans is their bancassurance product, which is a partnership with the United Coconut Planters Life Assurance Corp. (Cocolife) and the UCPB General Insurance Co., Inc.
"We will sell the insurance business to our customers. Therefore, we are anticipating big income contribution from bancassurance," he said.
Meanwhile, Macadaeg said it is keen on stepping up its pressence in the regions outside of Metro Manila in a bid to better deliver its services to its clients.
"As a bank we have been trying to look outside Metro Manila because we want to help the countryside. There are a lot of banks in Metro Manila so we are now focusing on improving the delivery of our products to these areas," he said.
Macadaeg added that with the economic boom in Mindanao, they will be redirecting their other resources here.