Security Bank net earnings dip to 18.6 B
Though the location had changed and the attire was appropriately casual, the scene was basically the same – people who gathered were familiar faces: bankers, market players and movers, business stalwarts, monetary authorities, and of course, some economic members of the fourth estate. His better half, Ms. Tess, was there, profuse in appreciation for the outpouring of support and respect for her main man.
For me, it felt like a déjà vu. Because, exactly a month ago, January 25, the same old faces dressed to the nines were gathered at the annual banking reception held at the Fort San Antonio Abad. On Monday, February 25, the 33rd anniversary of the 1st People Power that liberated the country from the shackles of the dictatorship, most of the guests at the yearly Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) event met again, this time around, to pay our last respects to BSP Governor Nestor “Nesting” A. Espenilla, Jr., who was fetched by his angels Saturday after courageously fighting tongue cancer for more than a year. He’s the first sitting chairman of the Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the BSP, to abruptly leave this way.
I confessed I was startled by the news of his departure. Engrossed in watching my favorite Korean telenovela, I totally disregarded, at the onset, the series of viber messages I had received. But, the viber notifications kept on buzzing. And so, I thought that there must be something so urgent that I had to forego what I had been glued to.
Reading the flurry of messages, I was floored, dumbfounded. I thought of him, Gov. Nesting, full of work enthusiasm. In fact, it embodied his keynote speech read for him by then BSP officer-in charge Deputy Governor for financial supervisory sector Chuchi Fonacier at the annual event. Despite his health battle, his zest for work remained: “No one is dropping the ball. As you can see, there is much work to be done... So much work,” he told the guests and his BSP colleagues back then.
To say thathisprofessionalism and work ethics had been inspirationally infectious is
Security Bank Corporation posted a 16 percent decline in net income to 18.6 billion last year from 110.3 billion in 2017 due to lower trading gains and higher taxes.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said a key component of its earnings is net interest income from customer loans and deposits, which increased by 30 percent to 115.7 billion.
This was driven by the continued expansion of consumer loans and low-cost deposits.
Consumer loans grew 47 percent while low-cost deposits increased 15 percent. Consumer loans now account for 20 percent of total loans versus 16 percent a year ago.
Total loans increased 12 percent to 1416 billion while wholesale loan growth was 7 percent. Total deposits increased 18 percent to P489 billion.
Interest income from financial investments was lower by 11 percent mainly due to a lower
Talkback to me at sionil731@gmail.com level of investment securities at amortized cost. Total net interest income grew by 7 percent to 120.8 billion.
Service charges, fees and commissions increased by 26 percent to 1 2.9 billion. This was driven by credit card, bancassurance, loan fees and deposit charges.
The decrease in trading gains by 85 percent or 12 billion and the increase in provision for income tax by 47 percent or 1790 million primarily accounted for the Bank’s lower net income in 2018.
Asset quality remained healthy, with gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at 0.7 percent. Provision for credit losses was P714 million.
NPL reserve cover was 112 percent, computed using the new BSP Circular 1011 guidelines on loan loss provisions which the Bank adopted in September 2018.
Security Bank continues to be among the country’s best capitalized private domestic universal banks.