The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday fined the Bank of the Philippine Islands for failing to secure regulatory confirmation that its seven-year stock option and purchase plan for executives are exempt from registration.
BPI, the country’s third largest lender by assets, said the assessed penalties total P134.6 million.
The bank said the seven-year Executive Stock Purchase Plan and Executive Stock Option Plan was launched in 2013.
BPI launched the stock option plan as a major initiative under its long-term incentive program. The Executive Stock Purchase Plan gave bank officers the opportunity to buy shares of stock at a discount based on the volume weighted average of BPI’s share price for the past 30 days.
The 171-year old bank earlier reported a 66 percent jump in profit to a record P39.6 billion last year, driven by strong loan growth, higher net interest margins (NIMs), and lower provision for soured loans.
The profit of BPI was also boosted by the windfall from the sale of a property in Makati City the second quarter of last year.
The bank also booked a 21.7 percent increase in total revenues to an all-time high of P118.5 billion, boosted by the 22.2 percent rise in net interest income to P85.1 billion fueled by asset base expansion and improvement in net interest margin by 28 basis points to 3.59 percent.
Non-interest income grew 20.3 percent to P33.5 billion, primarily from the one-off gain on the property sale, higher fees from the credit cards business and transaction banking services, as well as gains from foreign exchange transactions.
Total operating expenses went up by 14.3 percent P58 billion, with all categories showing increases, led by technology and marketing.
Provision for credit losses fell by 30.2 percent to P9.2 billion, with asset quality improving further as its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio declined to 1.76 percent, while the NPL coverage ratio rose to 180.1 percent .
Total loans stood went up by 15.3 percent to P1.7 trillion, led by growth in the credit card, corporate/SME and auto portfolios of 31.1 percent, 15.5 percent, and 14 percent, respectively.Total deposits expanded by 7.2 percent to P2.1 trillion, translating to a 7.5 percent rise in total assets to P2.6 trillion.
