1167.7 Combined bank resources grow 11.35% in 2017

Profits rise 8.69% to B

The banking sector fared better in 2017, with resources increasing by 11.35 percent year-on-year along with net profit growth to R167.73 billion end-year.

Based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data, the domestic banking system posted a cumulative net profit increase of 8.69 percent from 2016’s R154.310 billion. Total resources expanded to R15.49 trillion from the previous year’s R13.91 trillion.

Banks reported total net interest income of R445.64 billion in 2017, up 15.46 percent from R385.95 billion in 2016. Noninterest income however fell by 4.24 percent to R142.75 billion from R149 billion.

The large lenders or the universal and commercial banks accounted for more than 90 percent of both resources and earnings, with R146.33 billion net profits, up almost seven percent from 2016’s R136.95 billion. Its net interest income was up 17.31 percent to R369.38 billion while non-interest income slipped 5.44 percent to R121.84 billion.

Big banks’ resources last year grew by 11.72 percent to R14 trillion.

The banking sector, despite capital flow reversals and depreciation of the peso, managed to post growth overall, along with the economy growing steadily last year.

BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla said the industry continue to be liquid with enough resources to support growth and the credit condition is balanced with appropriate risk assessments. Also, double-digit assets and deposits growth help banks keep its stable bottomline profits.

Last year, the medium-sized banks or thrift banks posted a higher net profit growth than the big banks. It reported a cumulative net profit of R17.94 billion, up 29.15 percent year-on-year. Its net interest income however had a slower growth of 9.64 percent to R58.86 billion compared to the large lenders, while its non-interest income was up 5.17 percent to R13.93 billion.

In terms of resources, thrift banks had R1.21 trillion which was 7.84 percent more compared to what was reported in 2016.

As of January this year, the BSP is supervising and monitoring 43 universal and commercial banks, 55 thrift banks and 464 rural banks