The Philippine National Bank (PNB) posted a net income of P3.7 billion as of end-September. Operating income for the nine-month period amounted to almost P20 billion, 1 percent lower than its year-ago level, which included extraordinary trading gains.
The bank’s operating income, excluding gains from securities trading, actually grew by 26 percent to P18.9 billion due to the combined effect of the 12-percent increase in interest income, and 29-percent decline in interest expense.
The P1.6-billion growth in interest income came largely from loans as the bank expanded its loan portfolio by 14.6 percent to P290.8 billion. The expansion was fueled by strong commercial and consumer-lending activities. On the other hand, interest expense on deposits steadily decreased in the past three quarters due to improving deposit mix.
PNB’s total assets stood at P614.5 billion for the period. The bank continued to improve its asset quality as nonperforming loans ratio decreased to 0.99 percent from 1.4 percent in December 2013. Likewise, ratio of real and other properties acquired (Ropa) to total assets dropped to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent due to the dynamic marketing initiatives to dispose of the bank’s acquired asset portfolio. The Ropa to total assets ratio is expected to decline further as the bank continues to conduct regional simultaneous public sealed biddings in all domestic branches. The bank’s capital position remained solid with a capital-adequacy ratio of 21.13 percent, well-above the minimum 10 percent required by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
PNB continues to enhance its e-banking solutions to meet the diverse banking needs of its clients and the community it serves. In the third quarter of 2014, the bank launched the Bureau of Internal Revenue Interactive Form System (PNB iTax) in partnership with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, wherein individuals and non-large taxpayers, who are PNB Internet-banking clients, are provided with the electronic channel to pay taxes through the PNB Internet Banking—Bills Payment System. PNB iTax is the first online tax-payment service in the country today.
PNB also launched new functionalities in the PNB-Internet Banking System (IBS) that now allows clients to avail themselves of the ATMSafe, a product that offers insurance protection against automated teller machine robbery and theft. Clients who also wish to view the details of their loan accounts in real time may now enroll their loan accounts in the IBS. An enhanced security feature was also introduced for the online enrollment of third-party accounts by using the one-time password sent through the client’s registered mobile number.