East West Banking Corp., the country’s 11th largest lender by assets, capped 2025 with a 21 percent jump in net income to P9.2 billion, powered by robust core revenues, double-digit fee growth and tighter cost discipline, underscoring the bank’s expanding earnings engine in a competitive market.

Rafael Fernandez de Mesa likes to open with a joke. In another life, he says, he might have been the first Rafa people talked about. Instead, that distinction belongs to Rafael Nadal. Fernandez de Mesa found his arena elsewhere, trading baseline rallies for balance sheets.

Gilbert had barely settled into his seat on a Friday evening flight bound for Manila, pleased to be heading home after several days of meetings in Mindanao. An hour later, the single-aisle jet remained parked on the tarmac at Francisco Bangoy International Airport, engines silent, cabin restless.