SANTO DOMINGO– Banco Popular Dominicano registered 13% growth in its mortgage portfolio during 2022, enabling 4,550 Dominican families to own their own homes, 72% of which were low-cost properties, revealed the bank's CEO, Christopher Paniagua, yesterday.
The executive stated that the mortgage segment disbursed 20 billion pesos last year and specified that the financial institution concluded 2022 with an increase in its assets of 27.2 billion pesos, registering stable indicators in the composition of its loan portfolio, efficiency and profitability.
The data provided details that SME loans increased by 14% and consumer loans by 18%. The financial institution granted more than 26,500 loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for an average amount of 1.8 million pesos each. Regarding consumer loans, more than 330,000 credit facilities helped to stimulate the economy and allowed customers to fulfill their dreams and goals.
Paniagua presented the statistics at a meeting with media directors and public opinion leaders, stating that the bank has experienced "healthy, sustained growth." "Over the past five years, the organization has doubled in size while maintaining excellent indicators of portfolio quality, efficiency, and profitability," he explained.
He explained that the loan portfolio increased by 9.3%, with 34.4 billion pesos more, for a total portfolio balance of 402,800,000 pesos, motivated by support for the productive sector and families.
Health and efficiency
According to Paniagua, the portfolio growth was achieved while maintaining quality levels, closing the year with a non-performing loan ratio of 0.59 % , "the lowest in the market," and a provision coverage of 545%, indicators that reflect the organization's growth and are well below the average for Latin American banks.
Technical equity closed at 80,588 million pesos, an increase of 16.5% compared to 2021, and the solvency ratio on that equity stood at 15.76%, which represents almost 60% more than required by the regulations, according to the data presented.
“Just as we saw the strong support we have in loan loss provisions, we see great strength in our solvency that prepares us for future growth. It is part of the formula of trust that we have built over the years and that we will maintain,” said Paniagua.
The Popular executive highlighted that the results were achieved in line with its path of efficiency, accelerating the digital, operational and human talent transformation, with an indicator of 54.3%, 11 percentage points less than three years ago and 10% less than the market average.
These results allowed the financial organization to obtain net profits of 18,178 million pesos in 2022, for a growth of 33.8% over the previous year, after the payment of Income Tax which amounted to 5,636 million pesos.
"The performance reflects the determination, commitment, and good business practices of the teams of collaborators, prudent risk management, and a commitment to efficiency and excellence, with the goal of making life easier for customers, supporting them in their needs, and positively impacting Dominican society," he said.
