BSP okays 185 applications for banking offices in Q3

MANILA, Philippines - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has approved 185 applications for banking offices in the third quarter as lenders aggressively expand their reach.

Universal and commercial banks accounted for 80 of the approved applications, while thrift banks accounted for 71. The remaining 34 applications were from the rural and cooperative banking sectors.

By kind, 152 of these are regular branches, 17 are extension offices, 11 other banking offices, and five microbanking offices.

The central bank said local banks have been preparing for the regional banking integration by beefing up their capital and increasing their reach especially in rural areas.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has long been working to create an integrated economic community set to be formally launched this year. The Asean Banking Integrated Framework (ABIF) is part of the integration.

The ABIF is expected to help increase the availability of financial services in the country, lower the cost of financial intermediation, and deepen capital markets. However, this move may also increase volatility in the domestic financial markets, the BSP earlier said.

At the same time, the BSP in November last year released the implementing rules and regulations for the amended foreign banks law. The new law allows for the entry of more foreign banks in the country.

With these developments, domestic banks face tougher competition from peers in the region and other parts of the world but the BSP has said earlier reforms should help Philippine lenders keep up.

Meanwhile, BSP data also showed 109 banking offices were opened in the third quarter of last year.

Universal and commercial banks accounted for 61, while thrift banks held 30. Rural and cooperative banks also opened 18 offices during the period.

The bulk or 83 of those opened were regular branches, while another 12 were other banking offices. Seven microbanking offices and seven extension offices were also opened during the third quarter.