Finance

MANILA, Philippines – Treasury bill (T-bill) rates went down across the board yesterday as investors swamped the auction following a rejection of bids for Treasury bonds (T-bonds) last week.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines dropped from 48th to 50th in ranking among 55 of the world’s leading financial systems and capital markets, according to the World Economic Forum Financial Development Report 2009.

MANILA, Philippines – The non-performing loans (NPL) ratio of universal and commercial banks was practically unchanged at 3.50 percent in August from 3.49 percent in July, well below the 3.90 percent ratio over the same month in 2008.

News reported by our Reporter Maricel Burgonio on Saturday that according to the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) president, Jose Nograles, 103 out of the country’s 690 rural banks are undercapitalized (as of June 2009) should not make people begin thinking dark thoughts about the rural banking sector.

AS the government clears the debris generated by Typhoon Ondoy, the Philippines’ financial sector is beginning to see the extent of the damage on their balance sheet.

MANILA, Philippines – Billions of pesos worth of loans are at risk of ending up in default due to the devastation wrought by tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng.”

IMF expresses concern over fiscal situation MANILA, Philippines – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the Philippine government should put on the breaks on its stimulus spending next year to prevent the country’s fiscal situation from deteriorating further.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s external debt as of end-June declined to $51.8 billion from $52.2 billion recorded in March on the back of repayments by the public and private sector, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s balance of payments (BOP) surplus rose to $484 million in the second quarter of 2009 from $221 million a year ago, bringing the first half surplus to $2.2 billion, mainly due to improving economic conditions worldwide, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of universal and commercial banks rose slightly to 3.49 percent in July from the previous month’s 3.36 percent, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

BENCHMARK interest rates went up on Tuesday’s auction of Treasury bills (T-bills) ahead of the government’s planned borrowing through the sale of retail Treasury bonds (RTBs) next week.

Big firms, not SMEs, benefiting from lending quotas, says ADB DESPITE a law requiring Philippine banks to allocate a portion of their loan portfolio to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said credit access for that sector remained “poor.”

MANILA, Philippines – The government sold P8.5 billion worth of Treasury bills (T-bills) yesterday after investors swarmed the auction with total tenders reaching P23 billion or almost three times oversubscribed.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s debt has risen to P4.2 trillion during President Arroyo’s prolonged incumbency, surpassing the debts incurred by her predecessors, latest data from the Department of Finance show.

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s universal and commercial banks’ recorded its lowest non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in June, hitting 3.36 percent, the lowest figure since October 2001 when the ratio peaked at 18.81 percent, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

Banks have the flexibility to reduce their lending rates further to get closer to, if not match, the aggressive policy rate reduction by Bangko Sentral.

MANILA, Philippines – A wash with cash, investors swarmed yesterday’s Treasury bill (T-bill) auction, prompting the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) to increase the size of the awards for all three tenors.

MANILA, Philippines – The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of thrift banks stood at 7.71 percent as of end-March 2009, up 0.55 percentage point from the previous quarter’s 7.16 percent, latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

BANKS have cut further their lending rates after a series of reductions in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) interest rates, an official said.

MANILA, Philippines – Treasury bill (T-bill) rates dropped across-the-board during yesterday’s auction on the back of strong investor appetite for government debt papers.

MANILA, Philippines – Hard times struck in 2008 but the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said banks managed to keep their capital levels significantly above international standards, driven by conscious efforts to beef up capital.

MANILA, Philippines – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said over the weekend that the Philippines would have to address three major deficiencies in its legal system, particularly the declaration of terrorist financing as a criminal offense on its own.

MANILA, Philippines – The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of universal and commercial banks rose slightly to 3.74 percent in May from 3.65 percent in April but remained well below the 4.17 percent ratio over the same month in 2008, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported over the weekend.

MANILA, Philippines – Despite the improved financial health of the Philippine corporate sector last year, sources of easy credit are starting to shrink, the World Bank said in its latest quarterly report.

MANILA, Philippines – In a continued effort to jumpstart economic activities, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) cut its policy rates by 25 points yesterday, bringing down its overnight borrowing rate to a record low of four percent and its lending rate to six percent.

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Treasury managed to raise less than two-thirds of its P8.5-billion borrowing target in yesterday’s auction of treasury bills, as it decided to reject some bids due to the high rates sought by banks.

CITING lower real estate and auto loan rates, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said banks have begun passing on to their lending business the monetary authorities’ cut in key interest rates.

MANILA, Philippines – Bank regulators said they expect some deterioration in the asset quality of the banking sector but not to the extent that would pose a systemic risk.

MANILA, Philippines – The accumulated bad loans of universal and commercial banks were unchanged in April, staying well below the four-percent pre-1997 level at 3.65 percent as banks kept discarding non-performing loans, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

The sale of local currency-denominated bonds or debt papers in the country accelerated in the first quarter of the year—which was seen as the highest in the region—as the government implemented a fiscal stimulus program to offset economic slowdown while private firms raised funds for their respective expansion programs, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.