By CHINO S. LEYCO State-run Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) surpassed all its financial targets last year with assets as well as gross income accelerated by double digits, the Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday. Based on a report submitted to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Emmanuel Herbosa, DBP president and chief executive said that the lender’s total assets expanded by 14 percent last year to ₱762.27 billion, while its gross income grew by 26 percent to ₱32.87 billion. Herbosa also said that DBP’s capital expanded by 16.57 percent to ₱60.29 billion, which was at a faster pace than the average growth rate of 11.04 percent from 2016 to 2018. The bank’s gross income, likewise, increased by 26 percent to ₱32.87 billion in 2019 from the previous year’s ₱26.06 billion. It was higher than the average growth over the 2016-2018 period of 6.75 percent. Net income rose to ₱6.06 billion, an improvement of 5.94 percent over the ₱5.72 billion reported in 2018. Herbosa said DBP remains on track to achieve its ₱1-trillion asset goal, with last year’s asset growth of 14 percent compared to the 2018 level of ₱669.59 billion, or better than the 10 percent expansion over the 2016-2018 period. Of the DBP’s assets of ₱762.17 billion in 2019, 54 percent or ₱414.06 billion were in loans, consistent with its role as a developmental bank. Another ₱206.56 billion represented its investments in treasuries and other ventures, and the remaining ₱141.55 billion were investments in other assets. “We project an average growth in assets of 10 percent per year to meet our goal of ₱1 trillion by 2022,” Herbosa said. The bank’s deposit accounts grew 17 percent in 2019 to ₱554.63 billion, as compared to ₱474.44 billion in 2018, he said. “The bank surpassed all its key financial targets in 2019 and recorded substantial growth against the 2018 financial figures,” Herbosa said. Herbosa said DBP continued to stay strong. “We are consistently doing what we are mandated to do, which is, to expand our portfolio in the infrastructure sector,” he added. At end-November 2019, ₱223.9 billion or 65 percent of the DBP’s total loan portfolio went to the infrastructure and logistics sector. The bank lent ₱58.9 billion to the agriculture sector, released ₱16.7 billion in salary loans, lent ₱43.7 billion to the environmental sector, and released ₱45.3 billion for other development loans. “We have exceeded our target of reaching 50 percent of the countryside, as we have already achieved 53 percent reach in 2019,” Herbosa said.