Eastwest Bank posts P2.1B net income in 2013, up 13.2%

EastWest Banking Corp. on Monday said net income rose by 13.2 percent to P2.1 billion last year from a year earlier, mainly helped by favorable results in core businesses.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the unit of Filinvest Development Corp. the bank said return on equity reached 11.1 percent and return on assets 1.6 percent, with total assets reaching P142.3 billion as of end- 2013, up 17.2 percent from the P121.4 billion.

“Despite the challenging 2013 landscape, EastWest posted strong performance in its core businesses of loans and deposits,” the disclosure read. “Customer loans registered a 32.1percent increase to P95.6 billion. Consumer loans grew by 29.4 percent to end the period at P48.9 billion.”

Its capital adequacy ratio was 17.0 percent as of end-2013, while its Tier 1 ratio was 13.8 percent.

Also posting doubledigit increases were the credit cards, auto, mortgage and personal loans businesses while corporate loans expanded by 35.1 percent to P46.7 billion.

“The year 2013 proved to be a challenging one for the banking industry in general because of the ultra low- interest rate environment,” Rene de Borja Jr., chief finance officer, said in a statement attached to the disclosure.

“Other banks turned their focus on traditional income sources, which tightened competition. In spite of this, we are pleased with our core businesses growth as well as our overall financial results,” De Borja noted.

Total deposits grew by 21.9 percent to P111.2 billion, fueled by an expanded branch store network. Low- cost deposits increased by 27.9 percent and high- cost deposits by 14.4 percent. The higher level of of lowcost deposits to total deposits helped lower by 15.3 percent the bank's interest expense.

“Our branch store expansion is on track and we are set to open more branch stores this year,” De Borja noted.

“The cost of expansion will continue to impact on our short- term results but we are confident on the long-term benefits of our investments as we continue to execute our strategy, and we will continue to ride on the momentum we have gained since we started our expansion program,” he added.

EastWest opened 55 new branch stores last year, which raised the number of branches to 300. (Wires)