Phl firms unfazed by global eco crisis

MANILA, Philippines –  The country’s top corporations and giant conglomerates are unperturbed by the downturn in the world economy.

This is the feedback that the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has been getting from its corporate clients.

BPI executive vice president and Corporate Banking Group head Alfonso L. Salcedo Jr. said it’s business as usual as far as the bank’s big clients are concerned.

“We have been through the worst in previous years, and we were all prepared,” Salcedo said.

The BPI executive said there has not been any significant changes in the manner the corporates were doing business although he added that it may be too soon to tell.

He noted that the global economic turmoil has been rearing its ugly head since the start of the second semester, but the corporates have already made the critical decisions in the first half.

For corporate lending in general, growth remains close to double-digit in the first six months of 2011. Growth in overall lending likewise remained in the low double-digit level.

Salcedo however stressed that what was more important was how the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been performing. “After all, the SMEs are the backbone of the Philippine economy,” he pointed out.

In the past two to three years, corporates have reduced borrowing from banks while increasing their exposure to the debt market via corporate and debt papers.

On the other hand, SME lending continued to steadily grow.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) indicate that consumer lending by commercial banks had grown from P63 billion in 2009 to P65 billion in the first quarter of 2011.

In the case of thrift banks, the BPI Family Savings Bank has been defending its traditional turf in the consumer market, lending P163 billion in 2009 to P189 billion in the first three months of 2011. –Ted P. Torres (The Philippine Star)