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Keisha Ta-Asan - The Philippine Star
February 4, 2025 | 12:00am
In a disclosure to the local bourse, the bank said its return on equity stood at 15.1 percent while its return on assets reached two percent last year.
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — Profit of Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) jumped by 20 percent to hit an all-time high of P62 billion in 2024 from the previous year’s P51.7 billion, driven by higher revenues.
In a disclosure to the local bourse, the bank said its return on equity stood at 15.1 percent while its return on assets reached two percent last year.
The 173-year-old bank reported a 23-percent increase in total revenues to P170.1 billion last year from P138.3 billion a year ago. Net interest earnings soared by 22.3 percent to P127.6 billion as net interest margin widened by 22 basis points to 4.31 percent.
Likewise, non-interest income rose by 25.3 percent to P42.6 billion on the back of higher income from the credit card, wealth management and bancassurance businesses as well as gains from securities trading.
On the other hand, operating expenses stood at P83.8 billion last year, 21.3 percent higher than the comparable year-ago period due to more manpower, technology and volume-related expenses.
BPI also saw its provision for potential loan losses surge by 65 percent to P6.6 billion in 2024, translating to a non-performing loan (NPL) coverage ratio of 106.2 percent.
The bank’s NPL ratio increased slightly to 2.13 percent in 2024 from 1.84 percent in 2023.
For the fourth quarter alone, BPI’s net income inched up by eight percent to P14.1 billion from P13.1 billion in the same quarter in 2023 on higher revenue growth.
“Total loans stood at P2.3 trillion, an 18.2-percent increase over the previous year, inclusive of the portfolio acquired from the merger with Robinsons Bank Corp. Excluding this, organic loan growth remained strong at 13 percent, with growth in both our institutional and non-institutional segments,” the bank said.
Broken down, institutional loans grew by 11.1 percent while non-institutional loans soared 41.7 percent amid strong growth across all portfolios led by business banking (126 percent), personal loans (92.1 percent) and microfinance (62.3 percent).
Total deposits also went up by 13.9 percent to P2.6 trillion year-on-year, mainly due to the growth in time deposits. This resulted in a current account savings account ratio of 63.2 percent and a loan-to-deposit ratio of 87.5 percent.
BPI’s total assets increased by 14.9 percent to reach P3.3 trillion, while total equity stood at P430.5 billion.
The Ayala-led bank ended 2024 with an indicative common equity Tier 1 ratio of 13.8 percent and a capital adequacy ratio of 14.5 percent, both well above regulatory requirements.
