Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) Ended Q12024 with P2 Billion in Net Income

Topline revenues remain strong, growing by 14% year-on-year. This is attributable to the growing proportion of consumer loans, higher net interest margins, and transaction fees. Net interest income grew by 17% to P13 billion driven by a 59bps improvement in net interest margins now standing at 5.7%. Non-interest income excluding trading gains, went up by 13% to P4.7 billion. The Bank’s consumer loans now account for 59% of total loan portfolio, nearly 3x higher than industry average.

For the first quarter of 2024, UnionBank reported P2 billion in net income. Resources were allotted by the bank to the integration of the purchased Citi Consumer business into UnionBank systems. Bank profitability was briefly impacted by this, but it was a deliberate exercise meant to uncover long-term advantages and efficiencies. The last stage of the Citi integration, which required moving millions of customer and transaction records from Citi to UnionBank's platforms, was effectively finished by the bank on March 24, 2024.
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Operating expenditures for the bank increased by 10% to P11 billion, primarily due to IT-related charges that facilitated the smooth transfer of Citi retail accounts onto UnionBank systems. In the first quarter of 2024, a P1.1 billion one-time integration cost was incurred. Furthermore, the bank's marketing investments increased the number of new credit card customers by over twofold compared to the previous year. The bank can now offer its other products and services to a larger customer base.
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A total of P1.1 trillion was held in assets as of March 2024. While low-cost CASA deposits totaled P431 billion, the total amount of loans reached P521 billion.

“Our first quarter performance is in line with our expectations. We are even ahead in terms of key metrics that matter for sustainable growth, such as number of retail customers, net interest margins, and fees-to-assets. Now that we have successfully completed the Citi migration, we will no longer bear the one-time costs associated with it starting this month. We will now focus our efforts to realizing the full gains from cross-selling to our growing customer base..” said Manuel R. Lozano, Chief Financial Officer.

​Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) has always been among the first to embrace technological innovations to empower its customers. Undoubtedly the Philippines' pioneer in digital banking, UnionBank is committed to be the region's digital trailblazer and aspires to be a Great Retail Bank to best serve the growing needs of Filipinos everywhere.