BBS Bank turns first profit

BBS Bank, the country’s sole indigenous commercial bank, is expected to unveil its interim results no later than September 27. In a cautionary to investors this week, BBS Bank directors said the pretax profits for the half year to June 2024 were expected to be between P33 million and P35 million higher than the corresponding period last year. BBS Bank incurred a pretax loss of P29 million for the year to June 2023, continuing a prolonged period of operational weakness for the country’s youngest bank. Directors did not provide reasons for the higher projected pretax profit for the half year to June 2024.

BBS Bank was granted a commercial banking licence in October 2022 and has been posting losses since then, ranging from a pretax loss of P19.7 million for the year to December 2022, to P28.2 million for the year to December 2023. Much of the losses have had to do with the transformation from a building society to a commercial bank and the initialisation of digital banking, as well as costs of funding and other market pressures. At the end of 2023, directors said they expected to see the investments and initiatives made in BBS Bank translating to profitability in 2024.