5 days ago
Salmon's rural bank eyes sustained loan growth in H2 2025
Financial technology firm Salmon Group Ltd. on Wednesday said its subsidiary Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna) Inc. is looking to sustain its loan growth in the second half, after growing by 44.82% in the first six months.
According to Salmon co-founder and Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa chairperson Raffy Montemayor, the bank grew by 1.4 times to P1.316 billion in the first half of the year from P908.7 million in 2024, which it aims to sustain, if not exceed in the second half.
'We hope. That's what we're working towards, that we'll have faster growth in the second half. It really depends on our deposit taking performance,' he told reporters in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
'It's hard for us to project because it's all about how much deposits can we grow in order to accommodate the growth in the loan portfolio, so that's very difficult to project,' he added.
The bank's first-half loan portfolio was made up primarily of point-of-sale installment loans or product loans, which allow customers to fund their purchases with retail partner stores.
Montemayor said the loan growth would largely depend on the growth of the bank's deposits, which jumped 63% to P952.8 million in the first half from P584.3 million last year. This is expected to grow further, as the bank is set to allow customers to apply for time deposits on the mobile application moving forward.
'The second half of 2025 may be very different to the first half in deposits and as a result, may be very different on loan growth so it's difficult to provide a projection, but we expect it to continue to grow and grow significantly versus the same period last year,' he said.
Advanced EPFS license
Montemayor also said the bank is now finalizing its application with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for an advanced electronic payment and financial services (EPFS) license, which will allow customers to make more digital services such as fund transfers and bills payments.
He earlier said the bank would apply for the advanced EPFS license in July, but on Wednesday said this has been delayed as the company had to iron out details, and that this is now expected to be filed within the month of August.
Under BSP Circular 1033, an advanced EPFS allows supervised financial institutions to offer fund transfers and other transactions beyond primary services such as account balance inquiries, that are included in the basic EPFS license.
Montemayor said he is also set to do ocular inspections of the potential sites for the three branches that are expected to be put in by 2026 in the coming week — one in BGC, one in Cebu, and one in Cagayan de Oro, complementing the two it already has in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and Bacoor, Cavite.
The bank ended the first half with a return on equity (ROE) ratio of 58.9%, return on assets (ROA) of 24.9%, and capital adequacy ratio of (CAR) of 32.7%, outperforming the average of rural banks across the country during the period.
'We're very healthy. We have the equity needed to make investments to protect the bank from any external shocks, so we're very proud of that achievement,' Montemayor said.
Salmon last year said it targets to grow its loan portfolio to $2 billion in the next three to five years, as it seeks to expand its customer base by catering to what it calls the 'neglected' market and stepping into other countries in Southeast Asia. It ended 2024 with a P1.2-billion loan portfolio. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
