AUB to beat 2024's record performance despite global challenges
Coming in the heels of its record performance last year, Asia United Bank (AUB) is confident that it will register a stronger financial performance in 2025 despite geopolitical and economic headwinds buffeting global markets.
“We look to 2025 as a stronger year for the country, for the banking industry, and for AUB,” AUB President Manuel A. Gomez said during the bank’s recent annual stockholders meeting.
The bank posted a consolidated net income of ₱11.35 billion, 37-percent higher than the previous year and “a historic high that was mainly driven by double-digit loan growth.”
Gomez said the bank’s positive outlook is supported by the sustained robust economic momentum in the country projected at 5.5 to six percent in gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the next two years, rising household income that will drive loan demand in the banking sector, and stable inflation to support domestic consumption and help maintain loan quality.
“The continued progress in financial and economic digitization will also further strengthen the banking sector and should help Philippine banks cushion potential shocks arising from United States (US) tariffs and other geopolitical issues,” he said.
These factors should provide a favorable landscape for AUB which has yet again “achieved record-breaking financial performance and delivered glowing KPI [key performance indicator] results” in 2024, Gomez said.
“At AUB, we believe milestones are not meant to be reached, but to be surpassed. In 2024, we have done just that…We have marked yet another important milestone in the AUB story,” he added.
The bank attributed its stellar performance in 2024 to its corporate banking business, which had a record-breaking year posting a 28-percent increase in net income—the highest in the banking industry—even as it was able to maintain a nonperforming loan (NPL) ratio of 0.3 percent, the lowest in the industry.
Also contributing to earnings growth was the several financial technology (fintech) and remittance partnerships it established that enabled AUB to selectively lend to more qualified borrowers.
Meanwhile, AUB’s consumer lending business achieved a double-digit, 17-percent growth in booking volume as AUB continues to make its consumer loan products widely accessible to its customers through cross-selling in its branches and making them digitally available in its mobile app and website.
Gomez said the bank has also “made significant strides in enhancing [its] broader digital banking ecosystem.”