BPI Q1 net income slumps 57%

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is unfazed by the 57 percent year-on-year plunge in first-quarter net profit to P3.603 billion, citing the absence of extraordinary gains, which boosted its comparative year-earlier base.

BPI expressed confidence business will remain robust during the rest of the year. The banking arm of the Ayala Group explained that profit in the comparative period of 2013 stood unusually high at P8.4 billion because of extraordinary gains in trading securities of about P5 billion.