Union Bank of the Philippines said Wednesday net income in the first nine months fell 5.6 percent to P10.1 billion from P10.7 billion a year ago.
The bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange third-quarter profit grew 17 percent to P4 billion from P3.4 billion in the previous quarter.
The nine-month net profit translated into a return on equity of 10.4 percent, which took into consideration the impact of the additional capital of P40 billion from the bank’s stock rights offer in May 2022.
UnionBank president and chief executive Edwin Bautista said the bank made significant headways this year toward its aspiration of becoming a “great retail bank.”
“Our consumer loans now account for 52 percent of our total loan book, which is more than double the industry average. Our retail customer base has doubled in the past three years, mainly coming from our digital account opening and cash management ecosystems,” Bautista said.
“We are seeing strong momentum in terms of new-to-bank customer acquisition. All these milestones have set us up for continued strong growth in the retail market,” he said.
Net revenues, excluding trading gains, increased 37 percent year-on-year to P36 billion. Quarter-on-quarter, this climbed 23 percent to P14.2 billion.
Net interest margin also improved to 4.9 percent from 4.6 percent in the same period last year, coming from the expansion of earning assets and higher current and savings account or CASA ratio.
Net loans rose 37 percent year-on-year to P449 billion, while CASA posted a record 31-percent growth year-on-year to P417 billion.
Fee-based income went up by 64 percent to P5.1 billion, driven by customer fund transfers and card transactions, bancassurance fees and forex income.
UnionBank crossed the one-trillion mark in terms of assets for the first time, reaching P1.05 trillion as of end-September and higher by 37 percent year-on-year.
UnionBank chief finance officer Jose Emmanuel Hilado said the bank’s successful acquisition of the Citi consumer business on Aug. 1, 2022 added P98 billion of assets, including P65 billion in net loans and P30 billion in cash. It also included P67 billion in deposits with a CASA ratio of 89 percent.
“We are confident that the integration would be seamless as 1,500 former Citi employees, including 100 percent of the senior management of the consumer business, have joined UnionBank,” Hilado said.
UnionBank is among the first to embrace technological innovations to empower its customers.
The bank also said its board of directors in a meeting on Oct. 28 approved the capital-raising activities of up to P20 billion, which could take the form of a stock rights offering to shareholders and/or a private placement, subject to market conditions.