The profits of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) headed by bankero Eugene Acevedo surged 41 percent to P7.08 billion last year from P5.02 billion in 2020 after a strong fourth quarter.
RCBC first senior vice president and corporate information officer Ma. Christina Alvarez said the bank booked a double-digit 13.1 percent increase in gross income to P35.35 billion from P31.25 billion, while operating expenses only inched up by 2.2 percent to P22.53 billion from P22.04 billion.
Alvarez said net interest income went up by 9.7 percent to P28.83 billion from P26.28 billion as it built up loans and receivables mostly from the corporate segment that increased by 15 percent as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that grew by 19 percent.
The Yuchengco-led bank also reported a 35.5 percent drop in provisions for impairment losses to P6.05 billion from P9.35 billion, translating to a non-performing loan (NPL) cover of 63.7 percent.
There was a slight uptick in the bank’s NPL ratio to 3.3 percent in 2021 from 2.9 percent in 2020 as robust credit management and improving economic conditions continue to stabilize the bank’s bad debts ratio.
Alvarez said RCBC’s loan portfolio grew by 13.2 percent to P507.74billion, while its deposit base jumped by 25.5 percent to P672.46 billion.
Likewise, the asset base of the Yuchengco-owned bank increased by 24.2 percent to P959.13 billion, while its capitalization went up by 9.6 percent to P101.38 billion with the P4.5 billion infusion from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. for a five percent stake.
For the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, RCBC’s net income jumped by 71.6 percent to P1.74 billion from P1.02 billion in the same quarter in 2020 on the back of a double-digit 15.8 percent growth in net interest income.
RCBC has a network of 434 branches, 1,245 ATMs, and 1,589 ATM Go Terminals nationwide.
