Asia United Bank (AUB) and its subsidiaries posted a consolidated net income of P8.3 billion in 2023, a 32 percent increase from the previous year’s P6.3 billion and the highest in its 26-year history.
Based on unaudited financial results, the latest income figure translates to a return on equity (ROE)of 18.6 percent and a return on assets (ROA) of 2.38 percent – both record highs since the bank had its initial public offering (IPO) in 2013. The ROE and ROA rose from the previous year’s 16.1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.
“We attribute this vastly improved performance to our robust loan growth, more profitable net interest margin (NIM), continuously improving credit quality, and higher operating efficiency,” said AUB president Manuel A. Gomez.
Amidst the environment of rising interest rates, AUB saw its NIM widen by 17 percent to P15billion from 2022. Credit quality, as measured by net non-performing loans (NPL), stood at 0.58 percent, well below the industry’s 1.60 percent. This led to reduced loan loss provisions of P1.2 billion, 27 percent lower than in 2022. While operating expenses rose to P6.5 billion in 2023, the bank managed to improve its operating efficiency, as measured by its cost-to-income which further dropped to 36.3 percent from the previous year’s 37.6 percent.
Total assets grew by 4 percent to P355.1 billion while total depositsrose to P292 billion, with the bulk still comprised of low-cost CASA deposits.
