STRONG trading gains and high interest income posted by its business units helped push United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) to post a robust performance in the first quarter of 2012.
The UCPB recorded an increase of 34 percent in its consolidated net income or P883.7 million at the end of March, said Jeronimo Kilayko, UCPB president and chief executive officer.
“Our strong first quarter performance bodes well for the future of the bank. UCPB took advantage of the volatile fixed income market thereby expanding its trading gains by more than three hundred folds during the first three months of the year to P486.9 million from P111.2 million in the same period last year,” said Kilayko.
Kilayko said that interest income from loans rose by 15 percent as the bank expanded its loan portfolio to P73.6 million by end of March 2012 from P62.1 as of March 2011.
“Consumer loans from the parent company went up at a faster rate primarily due to the bank’s tie-ups with major real estate developers. This provided the bank access to more clients who would like to borrow money to buy their houses,” he said.
Kilayko said these loans were taken from the inexpensive checking and savings accounts (CASA) which increased to P102.2 million as of end of March 2012 from P98 million last year.
By end of the first quarter, UCPB’s total assets stood at P204 million, which is 13 percent higher than that of last year while total capital increased by 23 percent to P17.9 million.
Kilayko said that UCPB’s first quarter performance comes at the heels of its robust income growth in 2011, which reached P3.05 billion or 25 percent higher than in 2010.
Kilayko said the bank would be targeting a P3.5 to P4.0 billion in net income this year./Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap