Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., the ninth-largest lender in terms of assets, said net income in 2019 jumped 25 percent to P5.4 billion from a year ago on the back of the sustained expansion in core businesses.
Bank president and chief executive Eugene Acevedo said in a statement Thursday the performance last year set the stage for the kind of growth the bank wanted to see in the future.
“… Produced by well positioned businesses in the key market segments we operate in through innovative products and quality service,” Acevedo said.
RCBC’s gross revenues rose 35 percent to P35.9 billion as interest income from loans and receivables climbed 21 percent, driven by solid volume growth and sustained margins across all customer segments.
Non-interest income also increased 125 percent due to stronger contributions in treasury-related and fee-based income, which includes deposit and branch fees, trust fees and card-related fees.
The bank’s small and medium enterprises and consumer loan segments saw solid double-digit growth of 29 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
Credit cards also saw a robust growth with card receivables growing 44 percent, and a card base of almost 877,000, up 26 percent from the previous year.
Acevedo said the SME and consumer segments had been the center of much of the bank’s expansion.
“Our continued investments in digital technology and efforts in process improvement are focused on servicing these customers better,” he said.
The bank’s assets expanded 18 percent to P771.3 billion as of end-2019, with investment securities and regular loans driving the growth at 36 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
Capital funds stood at P83.2 billion and well above the minimum regulatory requirement with a capital adequacy ratio of 13.8 percent and CET1 ratio of 12.9 percent.
Bank treasurer Horacio Cebrero III said in a briefing Thursday RCBC planned to sustain in 2020 the growth momentum gained last yea.
Cebrero said both net income and loans might grow by double-digit in 2020.
“We see a lot of opportunities despite the volatilities (including the COVID-19 outbreak)… As what the monetary authorities said earlier, there would be enough policy space. So we are looking at the same number of growth,” Cebrero said.
RCBC has 507 branches strategically located nationwide, 1,520 automated tellering machines, and 6,311 employees. RCBC planned to maintain the number of bank branches this year, Cebrero said.
