Bank of the Philippine Islands, the third-largest private lender in terms of assets, said Thursday first-half net income jumped 73 percent year-on-year to P20.4 billion on higher revenues and lower provisions.
The bank said in a statement the result included a net gain on sale of property and tax adjustments with the implementation of the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act.
It said excluding the impact of the asset sale and tax adjustments, net income reached P16.7 billion in the first six months, up 24 percent from a year earlier.
BPI said revenues grew 19.8 percent in the first half to P57.6 billion driven by the growth in net interest income of 16.2 percent to P39.3 billion, 14.4-percent loan growth and a 15-basis point expansion in net interest margin to 3.46 percent.
Non-interest income also rose 28.4 percent to P18.3 billion as fee income increased 42.2 percent year-on-year, slightly tempered by lower securities trading gains which came off a high base last year.
Total operating expenses went up 7.3 percent in the first half to P25.8 billion, with investments in technology as the main accelerator. Cost-to-income ratio was 44.8 percent. Excluding the income from asset sale, cost-to-income ratio stood at 49.1 percent.
The bank said it recognized provisions of P5 billion in the first half of the year, a 23.1-percent reduction from the P6.5 billion it booked over the same period last year.
NPL ratio improved to 1.99 percent, while NPL coverage ratio stood at a comfortable 170.7 percent.
“The sustained strong metrics in asset quality resulted in a continued decline in credit cost to 66 basis points towards pre-pandemic levels. Return on equity was 13.98 percent, while return on assets was 1.71 percent,” it said.
The bank said it recorded the highest quarterly net income of P12.5 billion in the second quarter, up 82.9 percent year-on-year. Revenues reached P32.3 billion in the second quarter, up 35.6 percent on robust performances from net interest income and non-interest income. Julito G. Rada
“Excluding the impact of the asset sale, it was nonetheless still a record revenue of P27.3 billion and record income of P8.7 billion for the second quarter of 2022,” it said.