THE Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines saw a drop in their first-quarter bottom line, due to the higher operating costs needed to support the migration of the Citi Consumer business into its systems.

According to the bank, they have a P2-billion net income in the first three months of the year.

This is lower than the P3.4 billion during the same time of 2023.

The bank also saw a 10% increase in their operating expenses to P11 billion.

It includes a one-time integration cost of P1.1 billion, with UnionBank completing the final phase of the Citi integration on March 24, 2024.

“While this temporarily affected our profitability, it was a planned initiative aimed at unlocking long-term benefits and efficiencies,” the filing read.

“Now that we have successfully completed the Citi migration, we will no longer bear the one-time costs associated with it starting this month. We will now focus our efforts to realizing the full gains from cross-selling to our growing customer base,” chief financial officer Manuel Lozano said.