East West Banking Corp., one of the most consumer-centric banks in the country, remains bullish on its growth outlook this year despite the challenging business environment marked by higher interest rates and elevated inflation.
Inflation blew past the target range last year and reached a 14-year high of 8.7 percent in January before easing to 8.6 percent in February and 7.6 percent in March 2023.
EastWest chief executive Jerry Ngo said in an online briefing the bank would focus on having enough liquidity that would be instrumental to expanding lending activities.
“We are back to the pre-pandemic levels… and we hope the momentum will stay robust,” Ngo said.
“Our main focus is to have sufficient liquidity,” he said, adding that markets were impacted by higher interest rates. “Sufficient liquidity will support our loan growth,” he said.
Ngo did not provide the bank’s net income guidance in 2023. The bank has yet to announce its first-quarter results.
Ngo said EastWest would also focus on digitalization.
The bank announced a net income of P4.6 billion in 2022, allowing it to declare cash dividends amounting to P925 million this year.
Excluding one-off items in 2021, EastWest’s 42-percent surge in net income was driven by core lending businesses. Return on equity was recorded at 7.7 percent, while total assets ended at P421.4 billion.
Assets grew marginally by 4 percent from 2021. Excess liquidity was deployed to higher yielding consumer loans and investment assets. The loans portfolio grew by 21 percent while investment assets expanded by 24 percent.
EastWest said with the reopening of the economy, it made significant progress with its credit card and key salary loan portfolios.
Pent-up consumer demand allowed the bank to post a 24-percent growth in cards receivables, with salary loans also growing faster at 96 percent.
EastWest also made progress in improving its funding base as CASA grew by 6.5 percent. Total deposits were steady at P329.2 billion, with CASA ratio improving to 79 percent from 75 percent.
The bank said it invested heavily on IT systems to help improve digital services, prime it for faster digital innovations and improve its operating costs through automation.
Capital ratios were at a healthy 13.8 percent and 13.0 percent for capital adequacy ratio and common equity tier 1 ratio, respectively, both above the regulatory requirements.
