Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) is planning to offer a benchmark-sized USD Senior Unsecured Sustainability Notes via a drawdown under its $3-billion Medium Term Note Program.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said it has prepared a note offering circular for this purpose and it will be uploaded to the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.

The notes will be issued under the Sustainable Finance Framework of RCBC and it has mandated Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, and SMBC Nikko Securities (Hong Kong) Limited as joint bookrunners for this drawdown.

In early 2020, RCBC further hiked the size of its medium term note program to $3 billion from $2 billion. It has been regularly updating its offshore borrowing program, launching $1 billion in 2011 and doubling to $2 billion in January 2018. 

RCBC reported a 10 percent decline in net income to P9 billion in the first nine months of 2023 from the P10.1 billion earned in the same period last year.

In a statement, the bank said net income came on the back of a 7 percent improvement in core business profitability offset by significant non-recurring income posted last year.

RCBC closed the first nine months of 2023 with record high revenues at P36 billion as fee-based income increased by 17 percent from year ago levels.

Total assets climbed 12 percent and reached P1.2 trillion driven by a 12 percent increase in customer loans with higher loan volumes across all segments.

The consumer segment led the rally and rose 23 percent year-on-year. Credit cards, in particular, posted 49 percent growth in their portfolio with new cards issued up 51 percent from last year. 

Cards-in-force recently surpassed the one million benchmark supported by data-driven acquisition and cross-sell campaigns.

"With customer experience at the heart of our digital transformation strategy, the Bank commits to deliver relevant and disruptive solutions to the market," RCBC President and CEO Eugene S. Acevedo said.

He added that, "These innovative and high-impact Al and digital use cases were key to the Bank's sustained growth despite challenging external headwinds."

To support the Bank's asset build-up strategy, deposits rose 13 percent, mostly from CASA which accounted for 83 percent of the increase and closed 21% higher versus previous year. 

Capital also went up following the P27 billion capital infusion last July boosting the CAR and CET1 ratio to 17.1 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively as of September 30, 2023.

RCBC remains to be the favored digital banking brand with a 42 percent increase in gross transaction volume across the Bank's multiple digital platforms. 

As of September 2023, RCBC had a total consolidated network of 459 branches, 1,448 automated teller machines, and 3,426 ATM Go terminals strategically located nationwide.