FCDU loans up 25% to $9.7 B as of June

MANILA, Philippines - Loans extended by banks’ foreign currency deposit units (FCDU) went up 25 percent as of end-June from a year ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said yesterday.

FCDU loans amounted to $9.711 billion as of end-June, higher than the $7.768 billion recorded in the same period last year. The latest figure was also higher than the $9.653 billion as of end-March.

An FCDU is the bank’s unit authorized to engage in foreign currency transactions such as accepting deposits and extending loans.

The central bank said net loan disbursements, which computes disbursements over repayments, amounted to $65 million during the period.

The loans were mostly made up of medium- to long-term borrowings, those payable in more than a year. They comprised 62.3 percent of the FCDU loans, while the remaining 37.7 percent were short-term accounts.

Resident borrowers, mainly from the private sector, accounted for 81.8 percent or $7.9 billion of the total credit portfolio. These mainly benefited public utility firms (23 percent), merchandise and service exporters (12.1 percent), and producers and manufacturers including oil firms (17.3 percent).

In the second quarter, gross disbursements amounted to $8.1 billion, bulk or 65.8 percent of which were used for working capital requirements.

The BSP also noted FCDU deposit liabilities reached $25.6 billion during the period, majority or 97.7 percent were held by residents.