Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., or Metrobank, grew its net income by 28.9 percent to P42.2 billion last year from the level in 2022 due to higher demand for consumer loans.

Net interest income jumped by 22.7 percent, reflecting a 15.9 percent expansion in consumer loans used for discretionary purchases, the bank’s disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange showed Thursday.

This was much higher than the 5.5 percent growth in business loans.

Non-performing loans ratio improved to 1.7 percent from 1.9 percent year-on-year. This was also better than the industry’s ratio of 3.3 percent, Metrobank said.

Income from fees for various services rose by 9 percent to P16.4 billion as transactions of individual clients increased.

However, gains from trading and foreign exchange were relatively unchanged at P4 billion.

Deposits, on the other hand, grew by 7.3 percent to P2.4 trillion as most clients continued to accumulate funds in low-cost current and savings accounts, which amounted to P1.4 trillion or 60 percent of the total deposits.

Operating expenses grew by 14 percent due to increased manpower and technology acquisitions, Metrobank said.

However, the bank stressed resources were better managed as cost-to-income ratio was lowered to 52.1 percent from 54.3 percent.“Our solid performance in 2023 was strongly driven by our asset expansion, higher margins, improving efficiency levels and better asset quality. This indicates that we are firmly on track with our long-term growth strategies supported by our highly capable and resilient team of Metrobankers and strong balance sheet,” Metrobank president Fabian Dee said.