Banking industry assets up 9.4% to P6.416 trillion in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines – Total resources of banks operating in the Philippines grew by 9.4 percent in the first quarter of the year as the country’s banking industry survived the global financial crisis and continued to remain resilient despite the debt crisis in Europe, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported over the weekend.

Data showed that the total assets of the banking sector amounted to P6.416 trillion as of end-March this year or P551 billion higher than the P5.865 trillion registered as of end-March last year.

The BSP traced the increase to the steady rise in loans and debt securities accounts of universal and commercial banks that account for about 88 percent of the banking industry’s total resources.

The assets of universal and commercial banks went up by 9.5 percent to P5.684 trillion as of the end of the first quarter of the year from P5.191 trillion in the same period last year.

On the other hand, preliminary data showed that the assets of thrift and savings banks inched up by 5.4 percent to P553.8 billion as of end-March this year from P525.5 billion in the same period last year. Likewise, the total resources of rural banks was steady at P178.21 billion as of end 2009.

The data revealed that thrift, savings, and rural banks accounted for the remaining 22 percent of the total assets of the banking industry in the Philippines.

Total resources of the country’s banking sector went up by 7.6 percent to P6.428 trillion in 2009 from P5.973 trillion in 2008 as total assets of universal and commercial banks went up by 9.1 percent to P5.694 trillion from P5.219 trillion and accounted for about 88.6 percent of Assets of thrift and savings banks went down by 5.9 percent to P556.1 billion last year from P590.8 billion in 2008 while resources of rural banks went up by 8.7 percent to P178.21 billion from P163.88 billion. These banks accounted for about 11.3 percent of the total assets of the banking industry.

The BSP reported that the number of head offices fell further to 785 in 2009 from 818 in 2008 indicating the continued consolidation of banks as well as the exit of weaker players in the banking system.

By banking classification, the central bank added that head offices of banks consisted of 38 universal and commercial banks, 73 thrift banks, and 674 rural banks.

On the other hand, operating network including branches of the banking system went up to 8,620 last year from 8,448 in 2008.

BSP Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said the country’s customer ratio stood at 10.744 persons per banking office as the geographic penetration stood at 8.6 banks per 1,000 square kilometers.

This translated to a bank density ratio of five banking offices per city or municipality.

However, he pointed out that 609 out of 1,635 municipalities do not have banking offices resulting in a 37-percent non-coverage as of end of 2009.

“Concentration of services in higher income urban areas, leaving low income areas significantly underserved,” Espenilla explained. –Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star)