The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has surpassed all its financial targets in 2019, with total assets growing 14 percent to P762.27 billion and gross income rising 26 percent to P32.87 billion, a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has shown.

DBP president-CEO Emmanuel Herbosa said in his report that last year, the Bank’s capital expanded 16.57 percent to P60.29 billion, which was at a faster pace than the average growth rate of 11.04 percent over the 2016-2018 period.

The bank’s gross income growth of 26 percent at P32.87 billion in 2019 compared to the previous year’s P26.06 billion was higher than the average growth over the 2016-2018 period of 6.75 percent, he said.

Net income rose to P6.06 billion, an improvement of 5.94 percent over the P5.72 billion reported in 2018, he added.

Herbosa said DBP remains on track to achieve its P1 trillion asset goal, with last year’s asset growth of 14 percent compared to the 2018 level of P669.59 billion, or better than the 10-percent expansion over the 2016-2018 period.

Of the DBP’s assets of P762.17 billion in 2019, 54 percent or P414.06 billion were in loans, consistent with its role as a developmental bank. Another P206.56 billion represented its investments in treasuries and other ventures, and the remaining P141.55 billion were investments in other assets.

“We project an average growth in assets of 10 percent per year to meet our goal of P1 trillion by 2022,” Herbosa said.

The bank’s deposit accounts grew 17 percent in 2019 to P554.63 billion, as compared to P474.44 billion in 2018, he said.

“The Bank surpassed all its key financial targets in 2019 and recorded substantial growth against the 2018 financial figures,” Herbosa said.

Herbosa said DBP continued to stay strong. “We are consistently doing what we are mandated to do, which is, to expand our portfolio in the infrastructure sector”, he added.

As of November 2019, P223.9 billion or 65 percent of the DBP’s total loan portfolio went to the infrastructure and logistics sector.

The bank lent P58.9 billion to the agriculture sector, released P16.7 billion in salary loans, lent P43.7 billion to the environmental sector, and released P45.3 billion for other development loans.

“We have exceeded our target of reaching 50 percent of the countryside, as we have already achieved 53-percent reach in 2019,” Herbosa said.

Compared to the top 10 universal and commercial banks like BDO Unibank, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Herbosa said DBP’s loan portfolio growth was much higher at 26 percent compared to the industry average of 11.9 percent as of the third quarter of 2019. This feat was achieved despite the absence of consumer loan products, unlike most of the private universal and commercial banks.

DBP’s deposits, which grew 17 percent, was likewise better than the industry’s 5.7-percent growth rate last year; and its asset expansion of 14 percent was faster than the industry average of 11.57 percent, Herbosa said.

“Compared to the industry’s 1.14 percent, DBP’s return on assets (ROA) ratio at 0.85 percent, and the industry’s return of equity (ROE) of 10.6 percent compared to our 10.82 percent show that DBP is mostly developmental lending. This is also reflected in our higher non-performing loan ratio of 2.37 percent as against the industry’s 1.88 percent. Thus, margins are not as high as the others and the Bank takes a little more risk,” Herbosa said.

For 2020, Herbosa said DBP plans to sustain its growth momentum by setting the following targets: 1) asset growth of 7 percent to P817 billion; 2) a 18-percent rise in loans to P419 billion; 3) an increase in deposits by 7 percent to P594 billion; 4) capital expansion of 5 percent to P63 billion, 5) a 5-percent gross income growth at P35 billion and (6) net income at P6.1 billion.

“We will continue to help spur the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (mSMEs), assist the newly formed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as well as the rest of Mindanao, and forge partnerships in Fintech (financial technology) to increase manpower productivity and the digitalization of our operations,” Herbosa said.

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