THE ASSETS of One Network Bank (ONB), the biggest rural bank in terms of reach, hit the P10.3 billion mark last July, or 17% higher than its assets a year ago.
The bank’s surge in assets was higher than that of the average banking sector’s growth of 6.5% during the same period last year. The banking sector already has total resources of P6.4 trillion, from P6.01 trillion during the same period last year.
Of these banking sector assets, the rural banks have P178.2 billion, or a modest four percent growth from P171.3 billion recorded in July 2009.
The income of the bank during the first seven months of the year also went up to P148 million compared with the P116 million during the period last year.
Alex V. Buenaventura, bank president, attributed the increase in income to the growth in deposits, citing that during the first half of the year, the deposits went up to P7.5 billion, or a 26% increase from P5.9 billion recorded during the first half last year. Another big factor, he added, was the income that the bank accumulated from investing in government treasury.
Buenaventura, in an earlier interview, announced that the bank will generate internal funds when it starts its operations in the Visayas.
He said a team deployed to assess the Visayas market is completing its report as the bank is determined to penetrate the new market with the goal of achieving 90 branches by next year, five of them in the Visayas.
Among the factors that the bank is considering in opening up branches are the demographics as well as the capacity of the people to save, the bank president said.
Recently, the bank opened five new branches in Babak, Island Garden City of Samal; Ayala, Zamboanga City; Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, and Oroquieta, Misamis Occidental. The bank already has 81 branches from just 33 branches when three profitable banks consolidated to form what is now ONB.
But Buenaventura said the bank will not abandon Mindanao as it is planning to increase its branches in the urban centers. He said the bank will continue to look for areas that are either “unbanked or underbanked.”
Meanwhile, Buenaventura is bullish that the bank will perform even better in the second half of the year as it has gone into aggressive lending programs. Another factor, he added, is the performance of the new branches.
