The Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna), Inc. has reported a significant surge in its financial metrics following its acquisition by Salmon, an innovative AI-enabled fintech, last January.
The bank’s total deposits soared by 439 percent, reaching P440million in May 2024, up from P82 million in the same period last year.
This growth in deposits is largely driven by the bank’s competitive time deposit rates, including its 8.88 percent interest rate for time deposits exceeding P500,000 for a 12-month term.
The bank has deployed these new deposits to acquire Installment Loans and Cash Loans from Sunprime Finance Inc., its sister company that successfully lends to underserved and underbanked Filipinos.
As a result, the bank has experienced historic growth in its total loan portfolio, which increased by 648 percent to P400million in May 2024 from P54 million in May 2023.
This has led to the bank’s year-to-date revenue in May 2024 totaling P66million, surpassing its full-year 2023 revenue by 432 percent.
Additionally, Salmon injected fresh capital into the bank so that it can invest in technology and in people to prepare for its upcoming mobile app and debit card launch, which is slated for the second half of this year, subject to BSP approval.
This capital injection led to the bank’s equity climbing to P385million in June, a 1,075 percent increase year-on-year. The bank also applied to the BSP for an increase in its authorized capital to P1.2 billion so that it can further invest in expanding its financial services offerings, enhancing its tech and branch infrastructure, and supporting long-term growth.
Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa’s Chairman and Salmon’s Co-Founder, Raffy Montemayor, credited these milestones to the bank’s efforts to fulfill Salmon’s mission of providing simple, modern, and intuitive financial services to millions of underserved and underbanked Filipinos.
“We are off to a strong start in building a robust financial institution by improving the bank’s products and services and enhancing our customer experience across both offline and online channels,” Montemayor said.
The bank’s Director and Salmon’s Co-Founder, Pavel Fedorov, added that “We are excited to see the bank rapidly becoming the center of the group’s business in the Philippines. We hope that with our upcoming mobile app and debit card launch, Salmon will vividly show just how different our approach is to providing customer experience. Built around daily needs on a slick and intuitive mobile platform, Salmon hopes to give a new sense of financial freedom and inspiration to millions of Filipinos.”
Salmon and the bank are supported by world-class shareholders including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, Northstar Group, a Singapore-headquartered private equity and venture capital fund manager, ADQ, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi,and other international and Filipino investors.
Founded in July 2022, Salmon leverages AI-enabled technology and a proprietary credit engine to offer market-disruptive consumer loans, such as Salmon Credit, Salmon Installment, and Salmon Cash Loans.
Founded in July 2022 by an experienced founding team, Salmon uses AI-enabled technology and a proprietary credit engine to offer market-disruptive consumer loans (Salmon Credit, Salmon Installment, and Salmon Cash Loans), providing differentiated simplicity and convenience to its customers. The mobile application of Salmon is rated at 4.8, and 92 percent of Salmon customers recommend its services to their friends and family.
