RCBC senior vice president and corporate planning head Ma. Cristina Alvarez
MANILA – Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) plans to allocate about 1.5 percent of its loan portfolio for provisioning this 2021, lower than last year’s 2.3 percent as it sees improvement in economic activities.
“We will continue to maintain a high provisioning level but not as high as 2020,” RCBC First Senior Vice President and Corporate Information Officer Ma. Christina Alvarez said in a virtual briefing Tuesday.
Last year, the bank allocated about PHP9.3 billion for loan loss provisioning amid the impact of the pandemic. The net non-performing loan (NPL) ratio stood at 2.9 percent.
Alvarez said the amount of provisioning last year accounted for about 2.3 percent of RCBC’s loan portfolio.
“We plan to bring down the credit cost lower than 2 percent, at 1.5 percent, of our portfolio,” she said.
With the expected recovery of the domestic economy this year, Alvarez said they aim to grow their loans “somewhere below 10 percent if everything goes well and the vaccination plan of the government goes on track.”
“Usually, this builds up in the second to the third quarter,” she added.
Last year, the bank registered a 5-percent growth in loan portfolio to PHP456.6 billion, led by the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), up 8 percent, and consumer loans, up 5 percent.
Relatively, credit card receivables jumped by 3 percent.
The bank posted a 6-percent year-on-year jump in gross income to PHP37.9 billion, while net interest income increased by 18 percent year-on-year.
Unaudited consolidated net income dropped by 6.9 percent to PHP5.018 billion. (PNA)
