THE chairman of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has expressed ‘excitement’ over the leadership of Maria Cristina ‘Ginbee’ L. Go as the lender’s next President and CEO succeeding Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco by late-April next year.
‘I am excited for the new prospects ahead under Ginbee’s stewardship,’ BPI Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said in a statement last Thursday. ‘Amidst some volatility in the global and domestic environment, there are notable opportunities, particularly as the Filipino consumer sector grows, becomes more sophisticated, and seeks a trusted partner in achieving financial stability and success.’
Go, a 23-year BPI veteran, currently leads the Ayala-led bank’s consumer banking business.
According to the BPI, she previously served as President of BPI Family Savings Bank, where she successfully led the institution’s transformation and integration into BPI.
Prior to joining BPI, Go held leadership positions at Citibank’s Manila branch, Ayala Land Inc., and Procter and Gamble Philippines Inc.
A Certified Public Accountant, she graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines-Diliman campus, placed first in the 1991 CPA licensure examination, and earned her MBA with honors from the Harvard Business School.
She currently serves on the boards of TransUnion Information Solutions Inc. and BPI subsidiaries Ayala Foundation Inc., BPI Direct BanKo Inc. and BPI MS Insurance Corp.
‘Throughout her career, Go has played a pivotal role in modernizing BPI’s consumer banking franchise, deepening customer relationships, expanding the bank’s retail footprint, and strengthening the integration of physical and digital banking capabilities,’ the bank said.
The lender added that it was able to ‘strengthen its market position across key products, expanded its customer base, enhanced customer experience, modernized BPI’s nationwide distribution network, and accelerated digital innovation, including the adoption of artificial intelligence-enabled capabilities’ under Go’s leadership of BPI’s consumer banking business.
Net income
THE day the lender announced leadership changes was also the day it reported a net income of P48.9 billion in the first nine months of the year.
In a separate statement BPI issued also last Thursday, the lender said total revenues for the first nine months reached P156.3 billion, up 9.8 percent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, net interest income increased by 11 percent to P121.1 billion, driven by a 10.7 percent increase in the average earning asset base and a resilient net interest margin of 4.6 percent.
Non-interest income grew to P35.2 billion, up 5.8 percent, bolstered by strong fee income, up 15.5 percent on higher contributions from credit cards, wealth management and insurance.
Operating expenses increased 12.5 percent year-on-year to P73.7 billion, driven by manpower, technology, and business volume-related costs, leading to a cost-to-income ratio of 47.1 percent.
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The bank said it booked provisions of P19.9 billion, up 69.2 percent from the previous year, while third quarter provisioning eased 16.5 percent from the preceding quarter.
Asset quality saw ‘modest changes’ with the [non-performing loans] NPL ratio rising quarter-on-quarter to 2.50 percent, BPI’s statement read.
It added that its return on equity was 13.6 percent and return on assets was 1.8 percent.
The bank said it continued to maintain ‘adequate’ reserves for ‘expected credit losses,’ resulting in an NPL coverage ratio of 89.6 percent.
Total assets stood at P3.9 trillion, up 10.8 percent year-on-year, according to the country’s second-largest commercial bank in terms of assets. Total loans expanded 13.6 percent year-on-year to P2.7 trillion on sustained lending momentum across all customer segments.
Institutional loans rose by 11.3 percent while non-institutional loans expanded by 18.9 percent. The latter growth was led by SMEs (up 46.7 percent), credit cards (up 27.2 percent) and personal loans (up 21.7 percent).
Total deposits grew 11 percent year-on-year to P3 trillion, with the loan-to-deposit ratio at 92.4 percent. Total equity stood at P488.6 billion, up 2.9 percent year-on-year, with an indicative Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio of 13.9 percent while the capital adequacy ratio remained stable at 14.7 percent.
Both are well above regulatory requirements, BPI said.