BPI units surrender trust licenses to BSP

Two wholly-owned subsidiaries of Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) surrendered their trust licenses to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as part of the consolidation of their business into a stand-alone trust corporation.

BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. issued Circular Letter 2017–050 informing banks and non-bank financial institutions the Monetary Board has approved the surrender of the trust licenses of BPI Family Savings Bank Inc. and BPI Capital Corp.

With the surrender, Espenilla said the authority of both companies to conduct trust and other fiduciary businesses had been revoked.

The country’s third largest bank decided to spin off its trust business under the BPI Asset Management and Trust Group to a newly established stand-alone trust corporation named BPI Asset Management and Trust Corp. (BPI AMTC) that started operations last Feb. 1.

Last Feb. 24, BPI surrendered its trust license to the BSP. As of end December, the net asset value of trust and fund assets administered by the BPI Group amounted to P564 billion, 4.8 percent higher than the P538 billion booked in 2015.

Earnings of BPI slipped 7.7 percent to P11.7 billion in the first half of the year due to lower securities trading gains as well as the absence of one-off income.

The bank’s total revenues were flat at P35.3 billion.

BPI said net interest income went up 13.6 percent to P23.5 billion on the back of wider average net interest margin and a higher loan-to-deposit ratio while non-interest income fell 18.4 percent to P11.8 billion due to lower securities trading gains as BPI sold a portion of held-to-maturity securities in June last year to fund loan growth, reduce high cost deposits, and enhance capital. Excluding the one-off income in June last year, BPI said the bank’s net profit was up 48 percent.