State-run Development Bank of the Philippines, the eighth-largest lender in terms of assets, said Friday net income in the first quarter declined to P1.09 billion from P1.29 billion a year ago, due largely to higher provisioning for credit losses in compliance with new regulations.
DBP president and chief executive Cecilia Borromeo, however, said the bank remained on track to achieve its financial targets this year. She said the “overall average cost of funds has been on a steady decline while operating costs have been kept to a minimum.”
She said DBP’s gross income rose 9 percent from January to March this year to P5.77 billion from P5.29-billion year-on-year, while net worth grew 3.5 percent to P47.8 billion from the P46.19 billion a year ago.
Total deposits increased 32.5 percent in the first quarter to P428.5 billion from P232.3 billion in the same period last year, due mainly to the opening of new branches in several parts of the country.
Borromeo said DBP would broaden its branch network this year by opening 10 new outlets while expanding its ATM network, which has increased by 81 machines, bringing the bank’s total number of ATMs to 710 nationwide as of May this year.
“We ended the first quarter with 81 more ATMs, which is 40.5 percent of our target of 200 new ATMs this year,” Borromeo said.
“Out of the number, 69 ATMs were installed in provincial sites, in line with our commitment to bring banking services to the underserved areas,” she said.
Borromeo said DBP would aggressively target one million depositors in the next five years, focusing mainly on small depositors residing in underserved areas of the country as part of its advocacy of financial inclusion.
“We want as many Filipinos to have their own deposit accounts, and we would want them to go to DBP, and to trust us as their bank,” she said.
DBP boosted its development lending activities in the first quarter of the year, releasing P223.24 billion in loans to borrowers, up 16.9 percent from P191.03-billion disbursed during the same period last year.
The bulk of the loan releases went to infrastructure and logistics at P85.93-billion, followed by loans to government-owned-and-controlled corporations and local government units (P63.8 billion), agriculture (P40 billion), social services (P31.7 billion) and the environment (P16 billion). The bank also released P16.4-billion to micro, small and medium enterprises.