Union Bank of the Philippines on Monday reported that net profit barely changed in 2022, with the surge in net interest and gains from a significant acquisition last year muffled by the substantial trading gains in early 2021.
UnionBank posted net profits of P12.67 billion last year, a slight increase from the P12.58 billion recorded in 2021. Net profits in 2022 represent a 9.7 percent return on average equity even after a P40-billion stock rights offer that resulted in the issuance of more shares in May last year.
Net interest income in 2022 increased 30 percent year-on-year to P35.9 billion.
Fees and other income doubled to P13.4 billion largely due to the consolidation of the acquired Citi consumer business, as well as growing digital customer transactions.
Total assets breached the trillion-peso-mark in 2022 at P1.1 trillion, 31 percent higher than prior year. Customer loans jumped by 42 percent to P479.2 billion, resulting from the combined growth in UBP and CitySavings consumer loans, as well as the acquired Citi consumer business.
Total deposits was up 25 percent to P711.3 billion due to the overall expansion of the retail customer base and the strong take up of cash management products from large corporates.
“In 2022, we witnessed a momentous shift in our business model. We have a solid balance sheet that continues to provide us above industry net interest margins. The shift in digital also allowed us to grow our fees coming from mobile fund transfers and payments. We were able to book the same bottom line as the previous year, but with less reliance on trading,” said Manuel R. Lozano, Executive Vice President and Chief Finance Officer.
