CHINA Banking Corp., the seventh-largest lender in terms of assets, said consolidated net income in the first quarter 2018 rose 2 percent year-on-year to P1.50 billion on the back of the sustained growth in core businesses.
ChinaBank president William Whang said in a statement Friday good results were evident in the first three months of the year.
“We are working hard to meet our goals for the year, focusing on sustainable earnings through our core businesses of loans and deposits and strengthening our fee-based revenue streams,” Whang said.
The bank’s operating income increased 9 percent to P6.14 billion, while interest income rose 18 percent to P5.29 billion, driven by the 20-percent growth in gross loan portfolio.
Non-interest income (excluding trading gains) rose 6 percent to P1.14 billion from the increase in service charges, fees from investment banking and income from foreign exchange gains.
Core recurring income (operating income excluding trading gains) was up 16 percent year-on-year to P6.44 billion from P5.55 billion.
Operating expenses increased 13 percent to P4.24 billion on year as the bank carried out its expansion program by investing in new branches, more people and up-to-date technology to support the growth of new businesses.
Total assets expanded 16 percent to P722.63 billion—P102.23 billion more than the same period in 2017—driven mainly by the 20-percent growth in gross loan portfolio to P455.13 billion. Growth was registered across the consumer, commercial and corporate segments.
Even as the lending portfolio was growing robustly, asset quality metrics further improved to better-than-industry levels. Non-performing loans dropped P1.31 billion, leading to an improved NPL ratio of 1.32 percent.
The bank’s loan loss coverage ratio jumped to 149 percent from 94 percent, better than the industry average of 121 percent. The same ratio at the parent bank level was even stronger at 282 percent from 159 percent.