DBP breaches P1-trillion asset mark

State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has joined the ranks of local banks with assets worth a trillion pesos.

In a statement on Thursday, DBP said its total assets reached P1.04 trillion as of end-2020, a 37% increase from P761.24 billion recorded in 2019.

DBP president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Herbosa attributed the increase in the state-owned lender’s assets to the 47.6% increase in deposits amounting P817.9 billion from P554.18 billion in the prior year.

Investments also grew by a double-digit of 26% to P260.1 billion from P206.57 billion year-on-year.

“DBP’s latest milestone manifests the public’s continued confidence in DBP as a strong, stable and reliable financial institution,” Herbosa said.

“We are emboldened by the fact that the bank was able to achieve this feat two years earlier than our projected timeline and despite the constraints of the prevailing public health crisis,” he added.

DBP is the sixth largest bank in the country in terms of assets and has been designated as the country’s infrastructure bank by the national government.

The state lender has a branch network of 129 full-service branch offices, including 11 branch-lite units situated mostly in underserved and far-flung areas of the country. 

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas defines a branch-lite unit as any permanent office or place of business of a bank, other than its head office or a branch. It performs limited banking activities and records its transactions in the books of the head office or the branch to which it is annexed.

Meanwhile, DBP’s total loans to its borrowers as of December 31, 2020 reached P423.32 billion, up 19% from P356.75 billion in 2019, “with majority of the credit assistance channeled to critical sectors and industries that were severely affected by the current economic downturn.”

Herbosa said bulk of the loan as of end-2020 went to infrastructure and logistics, which accounted for nearly 53.4% or P225.9-billion, followed by loans to social services and community development at P78.9-billion, environmental projects at P44.8-billion, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) at P32.8-billion.

“We remain committed to the collective and purposive efforts of the national government to bolster resiliency and carve a steady path to recovery and growth especially of our traditional customer segments,” he said.

DBP’s net income, however, declined by 30.4% to P3.9 billion from P5.6 billion year-on-year due to higher loan loss provisioning and increase in operating expenses. 

“DBP’s financial standing mirrors the general trend in the industry as the majority of the banks amplified actions in ensuring ample reserves to cover probable losses as a result of dwindling economic activity,” said DBP executive vice president for Corporate Services and concurrent head of Operations Marietta Fondevilla.

“We remain focused on delivering on our mandated role and mobilizing resources to spawn productive economic opportunities for our countrymen,” she said. —Ted Cordero/KBK, GMA News