Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) hopes to exceed its P62 billion net income from 2024, focusing on expanding its customer base as interest rates decline.
“I’d be disappointed if we didn’t exceed it,” BPI President and CEO Jose Teodoro Limcaoco said Friday during a press briefing.
Limcaoco anticipates loan growth will maintain its double-digit pace in the second half of the year, driven by robust consumer lending.
In the first half of this year, BPI’s customer loans grew 26.9 percent, while corporate loans increased by 9.4 percent.
Most banks have reported slower profit growth for the first half of the year following record earnings last year, a trend attributed to decreasing interest rates.
“The growth rate in earnings is slowing down, and that is because rates are coming off,” Limcaoco explained.
“With rates coming off, we have to compensate for net interest margins (NIMs); you’ve got to broaden your market. And that takes time to pay off.”
“For us, we were able to get a lift because we have been able to widen NIMs despite rates coming off because we’ve broadened our market,” he said.
BPI reported a P33 billion net income for the first half of the year, a 7.8 percent increase from P30.6 billion during the same period in 2024.
Limcaoco also announced that BPI is expanding its regional presence by opening a new investment and wealth management office in Singapore.
This new office will focus on capital markets and fund management, a move made possible after BPI secured a license to operate from the Singapore government.
“We’re opening an office to serve Filipino clients in the ASEAN region and Filipino clients who want investments overseas that we can house in Singapore,” he said.
The Singapore office will complement BPI’s existing operations in Hong Kong and London. Located in the Marina Bay Financial Center, the new office is scheduled to open this October. It will primarily cater to preferred and high-net-worth clients.
