RCBC 1st-half profit falls 28.5%
Despite an expanding loan portfolio, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) booked lower profits in the first half of the year due to a one-time gain recorded last year.
The Yuchengco-led bank’s presentation to analysts showed that net income in the January to June period dipped by 28.5 percent to P4.45 billion.
Excluding a one-time gain from assets sold in the first half of 2023, RCBC’s earnings would have climbed by 10 percent, the bank said.
A 7.4-percent increase in operating expenses to P15.38 billion also weighed down earnings.
Net interest income in the first semester expanded by 28.6 percent to P19.75 billion, driven by a 38-percent surge in consumer loans.
The auto and housing loan portfolio of the country’s fifth-largest private bank likewise expanded by 28 percent, while its personal and salary loan portfolio tripled.
Meanwhile, RCBC’s nonperforming loans ratio, which measures its asset quality based on the number of borrowers unable to repay loans, eased to 3.77 percent from 3.91 percent in the same period last year.
RCBC president and CEO Eugene Acevedo attributed the growth in loans to the company’s use of data and digital technology.
“By combining on-the-ground encounters with data insights, we create a digital customer experience that fuels the remarkable growth we are witnessing,“ Acevedo said in a separate statement.
Earlier, RCBC announced plans to boost its loan portfolio this year by 27 percent to P160 billion as it developed new campaigns and programs to attract customers.
As of end-June, RCBC’s total assets stood at P1.26 trillion, up by 7.4 percent.
RCBC currently has at least 458 branches, 1,486 automated teller machines (ATMs) and 6,836 ATMGo — touted as “the country’s first neighborhood and largest last-mile ATM network” — terminals across the country.
It also recently partnered with Taiwan-based mobile remittance firm FastPay to support thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)sending money home.
RCBC said OFWs may now send money directly from Taiwan to their families’ RCBC accounts or to other Philippine banks through FastPay.
