The Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna), Inc. announced its operating and financial highlights for the first half of 2025, reporting strong growth and industry-leading performance across key metrics.
Since January 2024, the bank operates as a subsidiary of Salmon Group Ltd (“Salmon”). Salmon is a financial technology company created in July 2022 by a group of finance and technology industry veterans with the vision of bringing modern AI-enabled services to 500 million customers underserved by legacy banks across Southeast Asia.
With Salmon as its controlling shareholder, in the first half of 2025 the bank continued its rapid transformation by revamping operations through investments in cutting-edge technology and product development, advanced scoring models, and enhancements to its executive team. In terms of key financial highlights (with 6-month growth quoted relative to year-end 2024):
•Total assets of the bank grew by 43% to PHP1.8 billion;
•Shareholder equity has grown 2.7x as the Bank continued to focus on expanding its profitable consumer lending portfolio. In absolute terms, shareholder equity has grown to PHP707 million, up from PHP261 million at the year-end;
•Deposits, particularly time savings deposits, demonstrated strong traction and grew by 66.7% to a total level of PHP952 million;
•Consumer lending portfolio of the Bank expanded considerably with net loans up 33.8%, from PHP909 million to PHP1.2 billion pesos. The Bank continued building a high-quality and well-diversified portfolio of consumer loans;
•The bank delivered industry-leading profitability and capital strength, posting a Return on Equity (ROE) of 58.9% and Return on Assets (ROA) of 24.9%, significantly outperforming rural banking sector averages of 15.7% and 2.8%, respectively. Its Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) stood at 32.7%, well above the 18.0% rural bank benchmark, based on the latest available BSP data as of Q1 2025.
Commenting on the results, Salmon Co-Founder and Chairman of the Bank Raffy Montemayor remarked: “In the first half of 2025, the Bank made significant strides in its transformation, driven by strategic investments in technology, talent, and governance. One key highlight was the launch of our market-leading 8.88% time deposit product, now available through the highly rated Salmon app, one of the top-rated finance apps in the Philippines with a 4.8 rating on both Google Play and the App Store. In the coming weeks, we expect to launch full online onboarding for new clients, making the account opening process seamless and user-friendly. Another milestone was the continued strengthening of our corporate governance, marked by the appointment of Atty. Juan De Zuñiga, Jr. as an independent director, following his long and distinguished career at the BSP. These accomplishments have been made possible through the support and capabilities brought by Salmon.”
