MANILA – Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company (Metrobank) reported unaudited consolidated net income of P5.6 billion for the first quarter 2017, up 6% compared with the same period last year.
Metrobank sustained the momentum in its core business, with industry leading growth in loans and low-cost deposit generation resulting in better margins. Fee income had a significant year-on-year improvement, while operating expense growth was kept at a very manageable level.
For the period, total revenues hit P19.9 billion while operating expenses grew at just 6% to reach P11.1 billion.
“Our first quarter results reflect our capability to consistently deliver quality earnings from our core business. We are moving as planned in terms of diversifying revenues through sustained growth in net interest income and higher contributions from fee-related initiatives” said Metrobank President Fabian S. Dee.
“Over time, our efforts were focused on building a healthy asset and funding mix to support margin expansion, while our continued investment in people and technology has started to bear fruit helping us gain more operating leverage” added Dee.
As of quarter-end, Metrobank’s total deposits grew 16% year-on-year to reach P1.4 trillion. More important, CASA deposits expanded at a faster clip of 19%. The sustained build-up of low cost deposits fueled the acceleration in the loan portfolio, which in turn climbed 26% to P1.1 trillion. With this, total loans accounted for 57% of the asset base from 52% in the same period last year.
The commercial segment led the growth, up 30% year-on-year with strong contributions from the top corporate and middle market accounts.
The consumer business on the other hand, maintained its solid volume growth of 17%, with auto loans still the fastest- growing segment among the Bank’s consumer assets.
The robust loan growth and relatively low funding cost contributed to the 14% increase in net interest income to P14.5 billion. Metrobank’s net interest margins for the period improved to 3.7%, one of the highest rates among its peer banks.
Meanwhile, the Bank’s non-interest income of P5.4 billion was boosted by the 18% growth in service fees and commissions and income from trust operations, which amounted to a total P3.0 billion. In addition, the Bank reported P1.1 billion in net trading and FX gains and P1.3 billion in miscellaneous income.
Notwithstanding the strong loan growth for the period, the Bank’s asset quality metrics remained healthy and better than industry average. Non-performing loans (NPL) ratio was at 0.9%, while NPL coverage continues to be more than adequate at 112%. For the first three months of the year, the Bank reported provisions for credit and impairment losses of P1.1 billion.
Metrobank ended the first quarter with consolidated assets of P1.9 trillion, and equity at P200.5 billion. Basel III total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was well above the regulatory limit at 15.6% with Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio at 12.8%.
