The Ty family-led Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) said it remains resilient, robust and strong into the second year of the public health crisis, and it promises to significantly contribute to the country’s recovery amid the pandemic.

“We’ve been through good times and bad times with our Metrobankers, investors, and our customers. And in those times, we learned a great many lessons. We endured and we learned how we can move forward,” said Metrobank president Fabian S. Dee in a statement over the weekend.

Dee assured their customers the bank is in a strong position as one of the Philippines’ big banks and is prepared for “longer drawn lockdowns or a sudden surge in economic activity”.

He said the bank, at 59 years old, has accumulated decades of “institutional wisdom”. The Metrobank Foundation Inc., the bank's philanthropic arm, also helps in economic recovery, allotting P346 million for various pandemic aid programs.

In 2020, at the onset and height of the pandemic, Metrobank set aside loan loss provisioning of P40.8 billion in anticipation of increased bad loans since the lockdowns, which paused all business and economic activities, seriously hampered borrowers’ capability to pay their loans. The loan loss cover reached 163 percent while its non performing loan ratio is considered low at 2.4 percent versus industry ratio of above three percent.

Today, Metrobank is in its “peak maturity” and is known as a bank with a “fortress balance sheet”. Its reputation as a stable bank is solid with a capital adequacy ratio of 20.4 percent and liquidity coverage ratio of 262 percent as of June 30, 2021.

Dee said this “ensures that (their) clients and investors are well-secured, and the bank poised for more growth.”

Dee said their confidence extends to 2022 and they commit to remain healthy, capital-wise, its resources intact despite the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. “(We are) ready to support our country’s path back to growth in 2022 with the strongest capital base, highest liquidity and best asset quality we have had even before pre-pandemic times,” he said.

“Metrobank has been through almost six decades of challenges, in all levels of intensity. We draw from past and recent experiences so that we always come out stronger, better. Because we remember the inevitable boom and busts that come with business cycles, we have built our business prepared for possible downsides,” added Dee.

“We have learned that when you are geared for the downside and are able to recover quickly from this, you too will be most ready for growth when the economy starts growing again,” he also said.