Thursday, April 10, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
The Philippine Savings Bank is likely to post moderate earnings growth this year owing to declining demand for housing loans.
In a press briefing, Pascual Garcia, PSBank president, said the bank’s profits may grow moderately by 15 percent this year from P1.018 billion last year.
This will be driven primarily by lower demand for consumer loans, consisting of housing, auto, small businesses, and personal loans.
Consumer loans are expected to grow 17 percent this year, lower than 24 percent last year, as housing loans showed weak demand from middle-income market, particularly overseas Filipino workers.
“The first quarter performance is slightly weaker than that of the first quarter last year,” Garcia said. “We’re not as strong as [we were] last year. The banks have become very competitive [in providing consumer loans],” he added.
Moreover, slower demand in real loans was attributed to strong peso, high inflation and world economic slowdown. The peso will continue to appreciate on the back of strong remittances.
The pickup in real-estate lending was driven mainly by OFWs as mortgage loan rates dropped to an affordable rate of 8 percent.--MARICEL E. BURGONIO
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