EAST West Banking Corp. (EastWest) expects a reduced net income this year as it set aside huge “preemptive provisioning” for bad loans amid the economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. “We expect to continue our preemptive provisioning for bad debts. It is around P10 billion,” EastWest Chief Executive Officer Antonio Moncupa said during the lender’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Thursday. As of April, EastWest’s loan loss provision widened to P4.5 billion from P2.4 billion in the first quarter. Despite this, the EastWest chief assured that his bank’s balance sheet is resilient and that it could still generate good profits.

Source: Manila Times June 11, 2020 17:02 UTC