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Thursday, March 28, 2024

UnionBank plans to vaccinate employees

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Union Bank of the Philippines, the country's eighth-largest lender in terms of assets, plans to have its employees vaccinated against COVID-19, a top executive said Wednesday.

UnionBank president and chief executive Edwin Bautista said in an online briefing the Aboitiz Group would shoulder the cost of vaccination for its employees.

"We are currently making arrangements for pre-orders of the vaccine. There is a huge possibility that bank employees will be required to be vaccinated," Bautista said.

"I will be the first to be vaccinated to show to the people that it is safe and okay," Bautista said.

Food and Drug Administration director-general Eric Domingo said last week it was possible that COVID vaccines would be available in the country as early as March 2021.

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President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order No. 121 allowing Domingo to issue an emergency use authorization to COVID-19 drug and vaccine makers.

Meanwhile, Bautista said UnionBank would continue to push for a wider coverage nationwide through digitalization. He said the bank would continue to work with cities in the country that want to go digital amid the pandemic.

Bautista also downplayed the idea of putting more physical branches in the future, saying the priority of the bank was to strengthen its digitalization efforts.

UnionBank is one of the biggest banks in the country in terms of assets, loans, deposits and network coverage.

The bank's net income rose by 11 percent in the third quarter to P4.2 billion from a year ago, driven by higher recurring income.

Net interest income in the third quarter increased by 27 percent to P7.6 billion from P5.9 billion in the same period last year on significant margin improvement, while fee income increased by 18 percent to P621.7 million on account of higher service charges.

Net income in the first nine months, however, declined by 0.9 percent to P8.5 billion from a year earlier, because of higher provision for loan losses set aside this year amid the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The earnings performance translated into a return on equity of 11.6 percent.

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