BPI sees banner year

MANILA, Philippines - Bank of the Philippines Islands (BPI) said 2010 will likely be a banner year as it expects its net income to surpass the record P10-billion mark it registered in 2007.

BPI has reported a net income of P9.1 billion in the first nine months of 2010, an impressive 24 percent growth from the P7.3 billion profit in the same period last year.

BPI president and chief executive officer Aurelio Luis R. Montinola III said that the universal bank of the Ayala Group of Companies has recorded strong growth rates over the past two years.

The bank posted a 33 percent growth in net income last year and has averaged in double-digits in the first semester.

“If you look at our track record, and given that our third quarter is already P9 billion, then we have good chance of exceeding P10 billion (this year),” Montinola added.

The bank official expressed optimism they will be able to maintain the strong performance in loans and other income streams in the final quarter of the year.

Net income for the third quarter alone registered at P3.5 billion, a 25-percent improvement over the previous quarter’s performance, and 75 percent higher than the P2 billion registered in the same period last year.

Its auto loans are growing by an average of 30 percent and earnings from overseas remittances may also reach internal record highs, as the volume in the last quarter normally outperform earlier quarters.

At the end of the nine-month period, remittances from overseas Filipinos coursed through banks reached $13.8 billion or 7.8 percent higher than the previous year. In September alone, $1.6 billion worth of remittances were sent to families in the Philippines, or a 10.6 percent increase compared to the same month in 2009.

BPI is one of the leaders in international money transfers from overseas Filipinos among the country’s major commercial banks. It has hundreds of cooperative banking arrangements with foreign banks for remittances, partnerships with international money transfer companies, not to mention its own branches located in different parts of the world.

Total resources as of end-September went up 15 percent to P764 billion, while deposits reached P613 billion for a 19-percent growth rate.

With assets held in trust at P458 billion, the bank now manages total funds amounting to nearly P1.1 trillion. Net loans stood at P331 billion, or 13.7 percent higher as all segments continued to post improvements with the highest growth rates from middle market lending/SMEs and consumer loans.

BPI has a market capitalization of P194 billion as of end-September, still the largest among local banks. Its Basel II capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was at 17 percent, while Tier 1 CAR was at 15.3 percent.