Metrobank’s lending business is ‘tied’ to economic growth

Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) said Thursday its lending business tied to the economy and it expects to sustain the same level of growth last year from its core lending activity this 2019.

Banking on the country‘s economic performance, Metrobank president Fabian Dee said the Ty-led lender’s loan growth is “tied to the economy.”

“Since it looks like the GDP (gross domestic product) projections are quite healthy, we would expect similar results compared with 2018,” Dee told reporters on the sidelines of the turnover of Metrobank Foundation’s P4-million donation to the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FFCCI).

The donation supports FFCCI’s initiative to build a “friendship dome” in battle-scarred Marawi City and its “Operation Barrio Schools.”

In the first nine months of 2018, Metrobank’s loan portfolio stood at P1.3 trillion, up 15 percent from the same period in 2017.

Washington-based World Bank projects the Philippine economy to grow by 6.5 percent this year while the Asian Development Bank sees the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, growing by 6.7 percent.

“I think we will pretty much track the growth of the economy,” Dee said.

The bank is optimistic that the story of soaring inflation in 2018 is a thing of the past.

Inflation peaked at a nine-year high of 6.7 percent in September and October 2018, on the heels of steady acceleration since the beginning of last year. The trend has prompted the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to raise key policy rates five times for a total of 175 basis points, bringing the overnight borrowing rate to 4.75 percent.

“If you see the inflation trend it’s already tapering off. So we think we’ve seen the highest that we could go. It looks like it’s tempered already,” Dee said.

Inflation clocked in at 5.1 percent in December, the lowest in seven months.

“We’re hoping this trend will continue ...” he added. —VDS, GMA News