Security Bank books record profit in 2015

MANILA, Philippines – Listed Security Bank Corp. posted record profits last year on the back of the continued strong expansion of loans and growth in deposits.

Earnings of the country’s sixth largest bank in terms of assets rose nearly seven percent to P7.7 billion last year from P7.22 billion in 2014.

Alfonso Salcedo Jr., president and chief executive officer of Security Bank, said the bank’s three core businesses including wholesale banking, retail banking, and financial markets or treasury contributed to produce record net profits last year.

“2015 results exceeded our expectations,” Salcedo said.

The bank’s loans jumped 24 percent to P240 billion last year amid the 21 percent increase in corporate or commercial loans as well as the 67 percent surge in consumer loans including home, auto, and credit card loans.

Amid the steady rise in loans, Security Bank’s asset quality remained healthy with its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio improving to 0.14 percent last year from 0.28 percent in 2014.

The bank owned by the family of Frederick Dy booked a 17 percent rise in deposits to P290 billion last year.

“Customer loans grew at rates significantly above industry with no deterioration in the net NPL ratio. Likewise, deposits outpaced industry growth,” he said.

Security Bank’s net interest income booked a double-digit 11 percent growth to P12.4 billion from P11.16 billion, while non-interest income rose 16 percent to P6.5 billion after a 38 percent jump in fee-based income with solid contribution from retail banking services such as bancassurance, credit cards and deposit transactions, as well as from asset management.

The bank’s core revenues from interest income, fee-based income, and trading gains rose 15 percent to P15.6 billion last year. This was achieved amid the 35.4 percent plunge in trading gains to P2 billion last year from P3.1 billion in 2014.

“Core revenues are growing robustly, with the increase progressively making up for lower trading gains,” Salcedo said.

The bank’s operating expenses excluding provisions for probable credit losses and impairments grew 20 percent due to continuing investments in building the retail banking business and delivering the bank’s better banking promise to customers.

Security Bank chief financial officer Joselito Mape said the bank’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) remained healthy and exceeded the 8.5 percent level required by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the international standard of 10 percent.

Mape said the bank’s common equity tier1 (CET1) capital stood at 12.2 percent, while its total CAR settled at 15.2 percent last year.

Security Bank has 262 branches and 555 ATMs nationwide.