Metrobank improves bad loan ratio, posts profit growth

Listed Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) has improved its bad loan ratio after cutting soured loans by a fifth last year, the company said on Thursday. The country’s biggest bank told the Philippine Stock Exchange its bad loan ratio had dropped by a point to 3.5 percent last year after nonperforming loans slid by a fifth to P3.2 billion. At the end of last year, Metrobank had P854.3 billion in consolidated assets, keeping its position as the bank with the highest capital at P75.2 billion. Its capital adequacy ratio — a measure of a bank’s financial health — stood at 14.3 percent, higher than the regulatory requirement of 10 percent. Metrobank said its consolidated net profits more than doubled in the last quarter of last year to P1.4 billion, bringing the full-year total to P6 billion — more than a third higher than a year earlier. "The full-year results reflect our continued earnings strength and more efficient operations… We were able to take advantage of the recovery from the financial turmoil of the previous year," Metrobank President Arthur Ty said. Revenues climbed by almost a quarter to P43.7 billion last year, while operating expense growth slowed by 6.8 percent to P25.8 billion. Net interest income went up by 15.6 percent to P26.7 billion as a result of sustained margins and an improved funding mix, the bank said. Noninterest income also expanded by more than a third to P17 billion due to higher fee-based income. Metrobank has 732 local branches and 35 foreign branches, subsidiaries and offices, as well as more than 1,200 automated teller machines nationwide. — NPA, GMANews.TV