11m households do not have bank accounts—Tetangco

About 11 million Filipino households remain without access to the banking system, Bangko Sentral Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said Monday.

“Rough estimates indicate that at the most, only one-third of our households have bank accounts,” Tetangco said during a conference of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel in Manila. “In other words, at least two out of every three households in the Philippines do not maintain bank accounts. This means an untapped market of about 11 million households.”

Tetangco said the problem presents a challenge and opportunity for the rural banks, which are scattered around the country. “We maintain that there are millions more households that can open and maintain bank accounts… given enough information, attention, incentive and protection,” he said.

He said these potential bank customers could boost the profitability of rural banks.

Tetangco said rural banks had a crucial role to ensure Filipino’s confidence in the banking system and rural banks.

“Indeed, bank programs to grow the business… should be balanced with efforts to educate and protect bank customers. As responsible bankers, this win-win strategy is the way to go… and grow,” he said.

Rural banks continued to hold the lion’s share of the banking industry’s network in the countryside. Tetangco said while the ongoing consolidation in the banking sector reduced the number of rural banks by 4 percent from 658 in 2008 to 631 in 2009, their total number of branches rose significantly by 45 percent from 1,362 to 1,974 branches.

RBAP outgoing president Joseph Omar Andaya said there were about 2,000 rural banks spread across the countryside as of 2009. These banks held a total of 6 million deposit accounts “and millions more in loan accounts.”

Between 2008 and 2009, the number of rural banks with automatic teller machines also increased from 113 to 119 while rural banks providing electronic banking services moved up from 47 to 52. –Roderick T. dela Cruz, Manila Standard Today