Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company was recognized again as the country’s best domestic bank for its strong financial performance and financial education efforts at the 2023 Asiamoney Best Bank Awards.
This is the second time that Metrobank received the award from the international finance magazine, after 2021 at the height of the pandemic. The publication said Metrobank’s exceptional performance versus competitors, success in growing its market share and remarkable strategy to cope with difficult or changing market conditions earned the bank the title.
Metrobank, amid the reopening of the economy in 2022, committed to enabling Filipinos – both individuals and businesses to take advantage of the gradual economic recovery. This fueled the bank’s performance across the board.
“The previous fiscal year posed many challenges for banks and other financial institutions as the world’s economies were not yet fully recovered from the pandemic. Despite this hurdle, Metrobank still posted an all-time high profit of P32.8 billion in 2022, a significant 47.9-percent growth from its P22.2 billion income in 2021. The bank also saw gains across the board with rising loans, increased profit margins, substantial fee income levels, well-controlled operating expenses, lowered provisions and stable asset quality,” said Asiamoney.
The publication also underscored Metrobank’s efforts to continuously support its clients not just with its best-in-class services, but with relevant information and advice on finance. “Metrobank is a mainstay of the Philippine economy and its financial education platforms are second to none,” it said.
“This award by Asiamoney is very timely as we also celebrate Metrobank’s 61st anniversary on Sept. 5. It is a testament to the bank’s strength and capability to navigate through challenging times and changing market conditions. More importantly, this shows the resilience exhibited by our employees because they are key to bringing the Bank to where it is today. Indeed, our goal is to fulfill our promise of keeping our clients in good hands,” said Metrobank president Fabian Dee.
“By empowering economic activity through our services, our hope is to contribute to the country’s financial and economic recovery,” said Dee.
Metrobank not only provided clients with relevant banking products and services, but also smarter financial decisions through a series of financial education initiatives.
The bank said its flagship financial education efforts include Moneybility—a comprehensive and dynamic financial education platform developed to help Filipinos become financially resilient. It is a collection of money management topics, which includes budgeting, debt management, insurance, investing, and more.
It also has Wealth Insights–an online portal that contains publicly-accessible market-moving news and insights, as well as exclusive premium content which deepdives into timely and actionable investment ideas.
Meanwhile, Metrobank’s Earnest app offers bite-sized lesson cards and easy-to-understand articles that cover basic investing concepts, each presented in a straightforward and jargon-free way for users.
Metrobank said it also hosted over 500 financial education-related events with an audience of over 100,000 through Metrobank and First Metro Investments Corp. To empower budding businesses, Metrobank conducted its SME Kapihan Series, composed of interactive forums that enable SMEs to explore the bank’s financing options in support of their business goals.