Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings) has retained the PRS Aaa rating and stable outlook of Philippine Saving Bank (PSBank) led by Jose Vicente Alde.
The highest issuer credit rating reflects that a company has a very strong capacity to meet its financial commitments relative to that of other Philippine corporates, while a stable outlook means that a rating is likely to be maintained in the next 12 months.
The PRS Aaa rating of the consumer and retail bank arm of the Metrobank Group reflects its strong market position, sound capitalization and prudent loan provisioning, strong parent and highly-experienced management team.
PhilRatings said the management team led by Alde is considered as highly experienced banking professionals.
Alde’s solid background on Information Technology is seen as significant, given the banking industry’s strong push for digitalization in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), PSBank was the country’s second largest thrift bank with total assets of P260.8 billion as of end 2021.
The listed bank ranked first in terms of capital with P33.5 billion and second in terms of deposits with P216.8 billion as well as net loans with P111.5 billion.
According to PSBank, it accounted for 44 percent and 21 percent share of the thrift-banking sector’s auto loans and residential real estate loans, respectively.
PSBank has maintained a healthy capitalization as its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) stood at 24.3 percent, exceeding the regulatory minimum.
In terms of soured loans, its gross non-performing loans (NPL) ratio improved to 6.1 percent in 2021 after soaring to 6.7 percent in 2020, from 3.6 percent in 2019.
After surging by 180 percent in 2020 due to the impact of the global health crisis, PSBank’s provision for impairment and credit losses declined by 29 percent in 2021 as asset quality improved with the gradual recovery from the effects of the pandemic
Metrobank is the major shareholder of PSBank owning 88.4 percent.
