UnionBank of the Philippines (UBP), the banking arm of the Aboitiz Group, on Monday reported a lower net income of P1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025, despite strong revenue growth.
The decline was mainly due to one-time tax-related write-offs and front-loaded non-recurring costs, UBP said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
The bank said its total revenues reached P19.4 billion, an increase of 8.4 percent compared to the same period last year. The growth was led by a stronger consumer lending business, wider net interest margins and higher fee-based income.
Consumer loans now make up 62 percent of the total loan portfolio, which is nearly three times higher than the industry average. The bank attributed this to its diversified strategy, particularly in credit cards, personal loans, and teachers’ loans.
Net interest margin rose by 69 basis points to 6.3 perent, helped by higher-margin consumer loans and lower funding costs.
Fee-based income also increased 21.3 percent to P3.7 billion, as more transactions came from its growing customer base. The bank now has 17.6 million retail clients.
UnionBank said despite the drop in profit, it remains confident about the rest of the year.
“The underlying drivers of our financial performance remain solid. We continue to see substantial new client acquisitions month-on-month as well as expansion of our net interest margin and fee-based income. These indicate that the strong revenue trend will be sustained. Moreover, if we normalize for the impact of one-offs, our net income would be comparable to prior quarters,” UBP chief financial officer Manuel Lozano said.
Jenniffer B. Austria
“Moving forward, we expect performance to get back to this trajectory and we remain confident that we will exceed our 2024 performance,” he said.
The bank and its subsidiaries had 383 branches and 431 on-site and 172 off-site automated teller machines (ATMs) nationwide as of end-2024.
