State-owned Land Bank of the Philippines, the fourth-largest lender in terms of assets, said Friday net income in the first nine months reached P10.3 billion, or nearly unchanged from P10.27 billion a year ago.
Land Bank said in a statement the nine-month bottomline was in line with full-year income target of P13.5 billion.
The bank’s return on equity in January to September reached 15.8 percent, while net interest margin hit 3.14 percent.
Total assets grew 17 percent to P1.3 trillion from P1.1 trillion in the same period last year, buoyed by growth in loans and investments.
Gross loan portfolio grew 9 percent to P481.9 billion from P 441.1 billion, while investments climbed 55 percent to P471.9 billion from P303.6 billion.
Land Bank president and chief executive Alex Buenaventura, who assumed his post on Nov. 11, said these numbers put the bank in a good position to further expand its services, reach and support especially to farmers and fishers, micro-enterprises and SMEs.
“This will be our priority moving forward, as we strive to keep the balance of maintaining our financial viability and fulfilling our development mandate,” Buenaventura said.
Total deposits reached P1.2 trillion, up 18 percent from the year-ago level of P991.3 billion. Total capital increased 18 percent to P91.1 billion from P 77.3 billion in the same period last year.
Land Bank is the only universal bank present in all provinces of the country with its nationwide network of 365 branches and 1,607 ATMs. These are complemented by 27 other banking offices across the country.
It remains the biggest credit provider to small farmers and fishers and local government units and is the largest lender to micro-enterprises and SMEs among government financial institutions.
Land Bank posted a 10-percent increase in net income to P13.3 billion in 2015 from P12.1 billion in 2014. The solid performance last year exceeded by 11 percent the bank’s annual target net revenue of P12 billion. This also translated into a high return on equity of 17.15 percent.