By James A. Loyola Mid-sized Asia United Bank (AUB) is seen to be well-positioned to sustain its strong first half performance as it intensifies commercial and consumer lending activities to boost interest income. According to Philippine Rating Services Corporation (PhilRatings), “AUB will continue to anchor its competitive strategy on its modern technology platform, expanding branch network, and highly experienced management team.” The bank will likewise continue to rely on its IT infrastructure, which will allow it to respond to the demands of its customers in a cost-efficient manner. “AUB plans to maximize its returns from existing branches while at the same time, increasing market presence by leveraging on its IT development capabilities,” it added. The bank delivered strong results in the first half of 2019, with a 63.3 percent year-on-year jump in net income on the back of growth across key revenue drivers. Net interest income rose 25.1 percent to P4.5 billion while operating income surged 68.4 percent to P1.5 billion, resulting in a 33.9 percent increase in operating revenues. Because of this outlook, PhilRatings has assigned an issuer credit rating of PRS Aa plus (corp.) to Asia AUB. The rating has a Stable Outlook. The second highest rating, a firm with a PRS Aa rating has a strong capacity to meet its financial commitments relative to that of other Philippine corporates.