The Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) saw its net income falling by 9 percent in 2020 from a record-high figure it posted in 2019 as a 91-day lockdown measure dampened housing loan takeouts.
Based on its unaudited financial statement, Pag-IBIG Fund’s net income slid to P31.18 billion last year from P34.37 billion in 2019. Total assets grew by 11 percent to 669.82 billion last year from P603.39 billion in 2019.
Pag-Ibig Fund CEO Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti attributed the year-on-year drop in its net income to the lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
“We lost a total of three months due to the ECQ [Enhanced Community Quarantine] and modified ECQ from March 17 until May 31, then from August 4 to 18,” Moti told the BusinessMirror.
Despite this, Moti said they “did much better than expected” as they exceeded the Board-approved “recalibrated” 2020 net-income target at P23.97 billion by 30 percent.
Last month, the government’s lender for housing said it was poised to achieve another milestone year in 2020. However, home loan releases declined starting March last year when strict community quarantine measures were imposed.
Pag-IBIG Fund’s home loan releases in 2020 only reached P63.75 billion, plunging by 26.47 percent from a record P86.7 billion in 2019. This was also 36.25-percent below their pre-lockdown target to release P100 billion in home loans by the end of 2020.
Home-loan releases dipped to P3.8 billion in March and P883 million in April; recovering in May when disbursements jumped to P1.2 billion and rose even higher to P2.9 billion in June as government began to ease mobility restrictions. By the end of the third quarter, Pag-Ibig Fund said home-loan releases had already recovered.
For this year, Moti said they are aiming to achieve the Board-approved net income target of P33.67 billion, which is 40.5-percent above the P23.97 billion adjusted target last year.
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