the Outsider - PSE Points to Ponder

  Metrobank’s interest engine accelerated in the first half of 2026. BDO, however, paired loan growth with expanding deposits, steadier noninterest revenue and tighter cost control. MANILA — The first-half results of the Philippines’ two largest listed banks offered an instructive contrast in how lenders can produce nearly identical profit growth from very different operating performances. Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company, or Metrobank, reported the faster expansion in its core interest-earning business. Its net interest income rose 12.8 percent from a year earlier, outpacing the 10.6 percent increase reported by BDO Unibank. But BDO’s overall result was more balanced. It grew loans and deposits together, increased noninterest income and held expense growth below the rate of revenue expansion. Metrobank, by contrast, contended with shrinking deposits, a sharp decline in trading-related revenue and faster growth in operating costs. The result was an unusual near tie at the bot...

  Lucio Tan’s Philippine National Bank has matched the dividend yield of the Ty family’s Metrobank. Its protection against bad loans remains another matter. For income-hunting investors, the contest between two of the Philippines’ oldest banking fortunes has acquired a pleasing symmetry. Philippine National Bank (PNB), controlled by Lucio Tan’s LT Group, and Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company (Metrobank or MBT), the flagship bank associated with the Ty family, now offer virtually identical dividend yields. At the share prices recently displayed—₱58.45 for PNB and ₱66.40 for Metrobank—each yields about 7.53% . The equality is mathematically tidy. PNB has announced a dividend of ₱4.40 per share for 2026: two regular payments of ₱1.65 each and a special dividend of ₱1.10. Metrobank has declared a dividend of ₱5.00 per share, consisting of ₱3.00 in regular dividends and ₱2.00 in a special payout. Divide each distribution by its respective share price, and the result is almost indist...

For most banks, a quarter in which net income rises, margins widen, and credit growth continues would count as a respectable outing. For Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company , the first quarter of 2026 was exactly that—until one looked below the net-income line. There, in the usually neglected province of “other comprehensive income”, the bond market left a conspicuous bruise. Metrobank reported ₱12.81bn in consolidated net income for the quarter ended March 31st 2026, up 2.4% from ₱12.51bn a year earlier. Net income attributable to the parent climbed 2.9% to ₱12.60bn , lifting basic and diluted earnings per share to ₱2.80 , from ₱2.72 in the same period last year. On the surface, this was the sort of quarter large banks like to present: steady, profitable, and comfortably capitalized.  Yet the more interesting story was not about profit but about capital. Metrobank booked a ₱16.40bn net unrealized loss on debt securities at fair value through other comprehensive income , or ...