Robinsons Bank eyes growth this year

MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Bank Corp., the banking arm of JG Summit Holdings Inc., expressed its optimism for this year, as it eyes growth across its business segments, a company official said.

In a recent interview, Robinsons Bank director Omar Byron Mier told reporters the bank is looking to expand its business lines this year in a bid to drive the bank’s growth.

“All of them – we have these three or four pillars or engines of growth – they will all grow,” Mier said referring to its savings bank business, consumer and commercial loans business.

Among the bank’s drivers of growth for 2017, according to Mier, is its savings bank. Mier said the company is looking to expand the footprint of its savings bank, in order to grow its microfinance services.

He said this would result to larger coverage of its small and medium enterprise (SME) clients.  “We’re expanding that – the footprint, the coverage,” Mier said.

The company will open eight branches this year but Mier did not disclose the locations.

“Maybe next year we will continue to press for additional branches,” Mier said.

He added the bank would open branches in both Metro Manila and in provincial areas, particularly in areas it does not have presence yet.

Apart from its savings bank, Mier said the company is also eyeing to grow its consumer and commercial loans portfolio. He added the company eyes to bring its loan portfolio ratio to 70-30 from the existing 75-25.

“Eventually 70-30. We’re really close to that,” Mier said.

Moreover, Mier said the bank also targets to grow its product line.

For 2017, Robinsons Bank is set to launch its credit card business, which has partnered with Mastercard, before the end of the year, particularly in the last quarter of 2017.

“We’re already prepared for that. We already got approvals externally for that, so we’re just preparing the launch,” Mier said.

Despite the optimistic outlook for the bank this year, Mier said that there are challenges faced by the bank, particularly the growing competition for talent.

“We keep on training our people and they get pirated,” Mier said. “Especially in fiscal areas like compliance, audit, risk management. So those three sectors, they keep on pirating our people.”