Security Bank widened its net interest margin and lifted core spread income in the first quarter, but higher credit-loss provisions, trading and foreign-exchange losses, and unrealized FVOCI mark-to-market losses kept the results from becoming a clean earnings-growth story. For a bank, a wider net interest margin is usually the closest thing to good weather. Loans and securities earn more than deposits and borrowings cost; the balance sheet breathes easier; profits should follow. In the first quarter of 2026, Security Bank Corporation seemed to enjoy just such a climate. Its net interest margin widened to 5.36% , from 4.51% a year earlier, while net interest income jumped 27.6% to ₱15.16bn . Interest income rose to ₱19.92bn , but the larger story was on the funding side: interest expense fell to ₱4.76bn from ₱6.76bn . Yet the weather did not hold. The bank’s bottom line slipped. Net income fell to ₱2.70bn , down from ₱2.82bn a year earlier; earnings per share declined to ₱3.5...