EastWest Banking Corp., the financial unit of Filinvest Development Corp. and one of the largest universal banks in the country, said net income in the first half jumped 21 percent to P2.7 billion year-on-year, driven mainly by higher fees and commissions, higher trading gains, and lower credit costs.
The bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Wednesday the first-half performance resulted in a return on equity of 12.3 percent.
Total assets grew 22 percent to ₱389.5 billion on year, while revenues rose by 8 percent to ₱13.2 billion from ₱12.2 billion in the same period last year.
The bank attributed the increase to fees and commissions which rose 30 percent to ₱2.7 billion as well as securities and foreign exchange trading gains which climbed to ₱629.5 million from last year’s ₱218.5 million.
“Last quarter [first quarter 2019], we mentioned that due to tight liquidity and higher funding costs, our margins were ‘squeezed.’ We are slowly seeing improvement on this and anticipate a better second half for 2019,” bank president and deputy chief executive Bobby Reyes said in a statement.
