First Isabela Cooperative Bank celebrates net income of ₱131.5 million (2017)

First Isabela Cooperative Bank, stylized as FICOBank, is a cooperative bank started in the mid-1970s. It is primarily engaged in financial intermediation between and among: farmers, fishers and their organizations; micro, small and medium entrepreneurs; rural, urban and overseas workers; and professionals, pensioners and other segments of the market. It also provides mobile-money, money-transfer/remittance and cash-dispensing services to the public. As of December 2017, FICOBank has 33 banking units located in the provinces of Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Cagayan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Pampanga, Pangasinan and Bulacan. SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Isabela_Cooperative_Bank

FICOBank, on Facebook, wrote the following:

Year 2017 is characterized by an environment of falling interest rate, with a backdrop of rising regulatory pressure. In the face of such inauspicious banking landscape, our Bank managed to beat the odds, remained at its best and ended the year on a high note.

In this year of the digital era, we have proven that our exceptional banking practices—the FICOBanking way—can withstand any type of difficulties and uncertainties, and allow our Bank to keep a fast-paced growth. Reaching our first billion-peso level of resources in 2008, we have achieved a very significant feat in 2017 by making our Bank’s resources fourfold in just nine years. Our total assets of Php4.11 billion, as of end-December 2017, portray a perfect picture of FICOBank as a bigger and stronger bank in its class. With it, I believe that our Bank is capable of reaching even-greater heights, one after the other, in the coming years.

Against the upheavals in the market that were brought about by the prolonged low-interest-rate environment, FICOBank has remained disciplined in its business operations. Although we felt the squeeze that is caused by the shrinking interest margin, as experienced by the banking industry, we’re grateful nonetheless for being able to cope better with such difficulty because of our approaches on how to operate our business. We have been efficient in our branch/center and corporate banking, which enabled us to generate significant volume of business and growth in earnings. Our strategies in the management of our assets and liabilities, as well as in revenues and expenses, have also been effective. The same allow us to handle our pricing, control our costs and manage our profitability. The increase in sales of our financial products, which is coupled with a substantial growth in low-cost deposits and high-earning loans, has likewise significantly contributed to this year’s bottom-line result.
Our differentiation approach in products, services, personnel, locations, systems, processes, value propositions and brand management has been very useful in our business operations. This approach is one of our key success factors, as it protects our business lines and product brands, and serves as our best strategy to avoid any parity or inferiority against the most-relevant competitors of our Bank. By improving our business model, product features and service delivery, we were able to satisfy the compelling demands and discriminating preferences of our Bank’s clientele. In spreading our market footprints in Regions I-II-III, we continue to make our presence intensely felt in the marketplace, grow our deposit and loan accounts, and win huge market share. Being prudent in making our decisions and actions, we ably succeeded in managing the various types of risks that are inherent to, or residual in, our business activities and corporate affairs. And, in order to achieve our Bank’s overall financial projections, we carried out in concerted effort, and with one heart, the result-based strategies and the impact-based initiatives that are specified in our 2017 plans and programs.

Owing to the foregoing winning ways in growing our business, we were able to wrap up the year with a net income of Php131.43 million, representing a growth rate of 4.72 percent over that of 2016’s record. We can consider this as a strong and stable operational result in a long period of uncertainty in the Philippine banking industry, as interest rates lingered at historical lows. In addition, as of end-December 2017, our Bank has a loan portfolio of Php3.04 billion, a deposit liability of Php2.30 billion and capital accounts of Php817.28 million. These major line items of our balance sheet grew by 12.86 percent, 10.20 percent and 27.66 percent, respectively. More importantly, our Bank was able to improve further its asset quality and capital adequacy.

The solid gains of our strategies and initiatives, as evidenced by the strong growth in our business operations and the current strength of our financial condition, positioned our Bank well for the future. We have no doubt that we are making rapid pace and great progress in realizing our FICOBank 2020 Vision to be… “A dominant community bank in North Luzon and a vital catalyst for the economic ascendancy of our customers and cooperators.”

It has been indeed a year of strength and growth for FICOBank. Therefore, I would like to thank all FICOBankers for their passion and commitment in doing well their respective roles and responsibilities. To our customers and other stakeholders, thank you, too, for your untiring support to, and unceasing trust on, our Bank.

To God be the glory!