BPI grows nine-month profit by 5.2%

Manila, Philippines – Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has grown its profit by 5.2 percent in the nine months ending September, owing to wider interest margins that buoyed revenues.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, BPI said it booked a nine-month income of P50.5 billion, higher than the P48 billion it made during the same period last year.

Revenues reached P142.3 billion, up 13.2 percent year-on-year, driven by a 16.2 percent increase in net interest income to P109.1 billion, on the back of an 8.7 percent increase in the average earning asset base, and a 30-basis point expansion in the net interest margin to 4.60 percent.

Its fee-based businesses from credit cards and wealth management boosted non-interest income by 4.2 percent year-on-year to P33.3 billion.

Operating expenses reached P65.5 billion, up 10.3 percent year-on-year, due to rising business volume-related expenses, manpower, and technology.

Despite the increase in operating expenses, the cost-to-income ratio improved by 118 bps to 46.0 percent, due to strong revenue generation.

Gross loans reached P2.4 trillion, up 13.3 percent from last year, fueled by strong growth from non-institutional loans.

Total deposits grew P2.7 trillion, up 7.7 percent year-on-year.

Earlier this month, BPI opened a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, the BPI Wealth Singapore.

BPI shares gained 1.03 percent to end Thursday’s trade at P108 each.

NewsWatch Plus business news anchor Lois Calderon contributed to this story.