PSBANK SEEKS TO RAISE P15B

Philippine Savings Bank, the thrift bank arm of the Metrobank group, plans to raise up to P15 billion from an offering of high-yielding deposits.

PSBank has obtained the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) approval for its plan to issue these long-term negotiable certificates of time deposits (LTNCDs).

The bank’s board earlier approved the LTNCD issuance in one or two tranches within one year.

“The issuance of LTNCDs will give PSBank an opportunity to access long-term funding as the bank further expands its consumer banking business,” PSBank said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

LTNCDs are bank products with long tenors and higher yielding compared to regular savings accounts or shorterterm deposits. They are taxexempt for qualified individuals if held for at least five years and insured by Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. up to P500,000 per depositor.

The bank said the final terms of the LTNCD issuance, including the offering period and interest rates, would depend on market conditions.

In the first quarter, PSBank grew its net profit by 25 percent year-on-year to P641.1 million, underpinned by net interest earnings and other operating income. The bank expanded its loan book during the period by 11.7 percent year-on-year to P149.2 billion, driven by the consumer lending business.