China Bank posts P 1.0 Bn net income

February 11, 1999 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 241-99 China Bank posts P 1 . 0 Bn net income China Banking Corporation (China Bank) reported an after tax not income of P1.003 billion for 1998, slightly lower by 6.6% from the P1.074 earned for 1997. The creditable income performance was achieved even as the Bank continued to strengthen its balance sheet by providing an additional P550 million for loan loss reserves, raising total reserves for possible losses to P1.437 billion, or 3.87% of gross loans. Total taxes amounted to P573 million, up 50.8% from P380 million. The Bank's capital adequacy ratio of 16.3% compares favorably against the international standard of 8% set by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). cdt China Bank's network has grown to 135 branches and 132 ATMs nationwide (of which 20 are off-branch sites). With its Electronic Check Clearing, China Bank offers its depositors the convenience of later check clearing cut-off times of 3:30 p.m. for most Metro Manila branches, and as late as 4:00 p.m. for Makati Main and Binondo Center branches. This convenience means that while other banks are already closed, China Bank depositors can still deposit checks without losing a banking day. China Bank also has longer banking hours from 9:00 a.m: to 4:00 p.m. and is open on Saturdays for its mall branches. China Bank uses the Year 2000-ready Dimension International software from Kirchman Corporation of Orlando, Florida for its deposits, loans and general ledger. It recently upgraded its mainframe computer with a four-fold increase in CPU processing capacity from 23 Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS) to 115 MIPS from IBM (9672-R25 model) and disk storage space from 90 gigabytes (GB) to 268 GB (from EMC). A new P7 million trunkline system from Nortel of Canada offers clients a more efficient way of reaching the Makati Head Office by dialing 88-55555. The first bank in the country to introduce phone banking, China Bank also relaunched the improved Tellerphone using the latest Lucent Technology equipment, where clients may inquire about their latest account balance or last three transactions (up to 10 accounts per depositor), transfer funds, pay bills, or inquire about the bank's different product and services by calling 88-55-888.