Taipan Lucio Tan’s Philippine National Bank (PNB) reported a six percent improvement in consolidated net income to P10.3 billion for the first half of 2024 from P9.7 billion in the same period last year.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said earnings grew as it strengthened its core banking activities despite the prevailing challenges in the economic environment.
“PNB’s performance has been on an upward trajectory since the start of the year and we attribute this to the sound execution of our strategies and growth initiatives,” said PNB President Florido Casuela.
He added “The stronger focus and collaboration of our business groups have enabled us to serve a broader part of the commercial lending and consumer finance segments. We are happy to help these segments grow.”
The bank's six-month net interest income went up by 11 percent year-on-year, driven by a 17 percent increase in interest income earned from its loan portfolio and treasury assets due to high interest rates combined with increased volume.
Likewise, the bank was able to temper the impact of higher interest expense on deposits by deploying these deposits to assets with better yields. As a result, the bank’s net interest margin improved to 4.37 percent from 4.14 percent a year ago.
On the other hand, PNB’s other operating income amounted to P2.3 billion, lower than the year-ago level of P4.4 billion, mainly due to the substantial ROPA (real and other properties acquired) sale recognized by the bank a year ago.
Operating expenses declined by four percent to settle at P14.3 billion due to prudent spending despite the continued business growth.
PNB set aside additional credit provisions of P2.1 billion during the six-month period.
As of June 30, 2024, the bank’s total consolidated assets stood at P1.26 trillion, four percent higher than the end-December 2023 balance, due to growth in loans and treasury assets.
With income for the period, the bank augmented its total equity by six percent, improving PNB’s Capital Adequacy Ratio to 17.0 percent and the Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio to 16.2 percent.
In line with its sustainability initiatives, PNB together with the Asian Development Bank signed a deal with Buskowitz Energy, Inc. to finance the development, construction, and operation of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the Philippines for commercial and residential buildings.
Under the project, a total of 70 megawatts of solar power generation capacity will be installed in the provinces of Bacolod, Bulacan, Laguna, Misamis Oriental, Pampanga, Pangasinan and Zamboanga.