Philippines National Bank said Monday net income fell 63 percent in 2022 to P11.6 billion from P31.69 billion in 2021 which was backed by a one-off gain from the properties-for-shares swap transaction.
“This caused the comparative net income in 2022 to be lower by 63 percent,” the bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
“However, taking out the effect of this one-off gain, the bank’s pre-tax income showed growth of 3.5 times year-on-year on the back of stronger core operating income in 2022,” PNB said.
Net interest income rose 7 percent year-on-year to P37.3 billion on higher yields on interest earning assets. This translated into the bank’s net interest margin improving to 3.61 percent from 3.27 percent.
Core income was boosted by the 5-percent growth on fee-based revenues largely coming from fees on its deposits, bancassurance and underwriting transactions.
As part of its strategic initiatives to reduce low-earning assets, PNB concluded several sale transactions involving high-value foreclosed properties in 2022, which generated net gains on sale and exchange of P7.8 billion, or almost 8 times higher than the gains recorded in 2021.
“PNB improved its efficiency and profitability amidst challenging conditions and economic headwinds,” PNB acting president Florido Casuela said.
He said this was a good indicator that PNB continued to deliver real value to its clients, investors and the overall economy.
Gains from foreign exchange transactions climbed 116 percent to P1.6 billion that cushioned the impact of trading losses in 2022 amounting to P1.3 billion amid the higher interest rates.
Operating expenses posted a moderate increase of 8 percent year-on-year on account of the taxes related to the property sales as well as higher amortization costs for the leased properties of the bank where it is currently holding its operations.
These properties were the subject of the properties-for-shares swap executed in 2021.
The bank’s gross loan portfolio settled at P613.6 billion as of end-December 2022, lower by 3 percent than prior year’s level, reflective of the bank’s lending stance to fast-track collection of short-term loans with minimal profitability and re-direct new loan grants to essential sectors that thrive in the new norm.
Credit provisions on the loan accounts are 44 percent lower than year-ago level, arising from improvements in payment and credit status in 2022 of certain large exposures of the bank.
PNB’s deposit liabilities went down by 3 percent mainly due to the strategy to trim down higher-cost time deposits. However, this decline was tempered by the continued build-up of current and savings deposits, which together grew by 4 percent year-on-year.
Total resources stood at P1.15 trillion as of end-2022, or 4 percent lower than the previous year.
Capital adequacy ratio stood at 15.38 percent and Common Equity Tier 1 ratio was at14.58 percent, both above the regulatory requirements.