Philippine National Bank (PNB), the financial arm of tycoon Lucio Tan, said Monday net income in the first six months of 2024 reached P10.3 billion, higher by 5.6 percent than P9.74 billion recorded in the same period last year.
PNB said in a disclosure to the stock exchange core banking activities improved despite the prevailing challenges in the economic environment.
“PNB’s performance has been on an upward trajectory since the start of the year and we attribute this to the sound execution of our strategies and growth initiatives,” said PNB president Florido Casuela.
“The stronger focus and collaboration of our business groups have enabled us to serve a broader part of the commercial lending and consumer finance segments,” he said.
Net interest income from January to June went up by 11 percent year-on-year, driven by a 17-percent increase in interest income earned from its loan portfolio and treasury assets due to high interest rates combined with increased volume.
PNB said it tempered the impact of higher interest expense on deposits by deploying these deposits to assets with better yields. As a result, the bank’s net interest margin improved to 4.37 percent from 4.14 percent a year ago.
Operating income amounted to P2.3 billion, lower than a year-ago level of P4.4 billion mainly due to the substantial ROPA (real and other properties acquired) sale recognized by the bank last year.
Operating expenses declined 4 percent to P14.3 billion due to prudent spending despite the continued business growth.
PNB set aside additional credit provisions of P2.1 billion for the first half of the year.
Consolidated assets stood at P1.26 trillion, or 4 percent higher than the end-December 2023 balance on the back of growth in loans and treasury assets.
The bank’s capital adequacy ratio improved to 17 percent and common equity tier 1 ratio to 16.2 percent.
PNB said that in line with its sustainability initiatives, it signed with the Asian Development Bank a deal with Buskowitz Energy Inc. to finance the development, construction and operation of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the Philippines for commercial and residential buildings.
Under the project, a total of 70 megawatts of solar power generation capacity will be installed in the provinces of Bacolod, Bulacan, Laguna, Misamis Oriental, Pampanga, Pangasinan and Zamboanga.
PNB is one of the country’s largest private universal banks in terms of assets and deposits. It provides a full range of banking and other financial services to its highly diverse clientele comprised of individual depositors, small and medium enterprises, domestic and international corporations, government institutions and overseas Filipinos.
