PNB profit slips 15% in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines — The nine-month profit of Philippine National Bank (PNB) slipped by 15 percent to P6.4 billion from P7.5 billion in the same period last year despite the strong performance in the third quarter.

PNB president and chief executive officer Jose Arnulfo Veloso said the bank’s core net income grew by 29 percent from January to September this year, excluding the impact of non-recurring earnings from the sale of foreclosed assets.

“PNB is reporting a solid nine months and third quarter, with good operational execution in our wholesale and retail businesses,” Veloso said.

For the third quarter alone, the Tan-led bank booked a 17 percent rise in net income to P2.4 billion from P2.08 billion in the same quarter last year, boosted by continuous growth in core lending and fee-based activities.

“Driven by our focused on safe, aggressive growth, we continue to track the growth of the economy as we support our customers in key infrastructure projects throughout the archipelago. The economy continues to demonstrate strength, helping push our performance level up,” he said.

PNB’s net interest income increased by 17 percent to P23.4 billion on account of improved earnings from loans to corporate, commercial and small and medium enterprises, and other interest-earning assets.

Loan receivables continued to register double-digit growth, which now stand at P644.8 billion as of end-September, higher by 11 percent from end-December 2018.

Its deposit base rose by 12 percent to P820.9 billion. Net trading and foreign exchange gains expanded by 33 percent, resulting mainly from favorable opportunities in the market, while net fee-based revenues went up by 14 percent spurred by continuous efforts in cross-selling deposits and credit cards to customers, as well as revenues from underwriting deals.

Operating expenses, excluding provisions for impairment and credit losses, increased by 13 percent from a year ago as robust revenue streams translated to higher business taxes and other business-related expenses.

PNB’s consolidated assets surged by 30 percent to P1.18 trillion as of September, driven by sustained momentum in its core lending, investments, and deposit-taking activities.

Due to various capital and fund-raising initiatives, PNB sees improvement in its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and solid support for its growth strategy and efforts to diversify its funding sources to meet the financial needs of clients.