Philippine financial resources further rise at end-April

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine financial system’s total resources sustained its modest growth, rising by almost 10 percent as of end-April, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

In the first four months of the year, resources of banks and non-bank financial institutions grew by 9.9 percent to P31.53 trillion from P28.7 trillion in the same period in 2023. These resources include funds and assets such as deposits, capital, bonds and debt securities.

BSP data showed banking resources jumped by 11.6 percent year on year to P26.3 trillion as of end-April from P23.55 trillion a year ago. It accounted for 83.4 percent of the financial industry’s total assets.

Banks include universal and commercial, thrift, digital, and rural and cooperative lenders.

Assets of universal and commercial banks stood at P24.64 trillion as of April, 11.7 percent higher than the P22.07 trillion recorded in the same period last year. Big banks alone covered 78.1 percent of the sector’s total resources.

Thrift banks also booked a 9.1-percent increase in total resources to P1.1 trillion from P1.01 trillion. Mid-sized banks cornered 3.5 percent of the overall resources.

Meanwhile, resources of digital banks stood at P101 billion in the first four months of the year, 48.5 percent higher from the P68 billion as of end-April 2023. The share of digital banking resources was at 0.3 percent to the total.

The six online banks that secured licenses to operate in the country were Tonik Digital Bank, GoTyme Bank, Maya Bank, Overseas Filipino Bank, UNObank and UnionDigital Bank.

The assets of rural and cooperative banks reached P458 billion as of end-April, rising by 13.4 percent from the P404 billion in the comparable year-ago period.

On the other hand, the central bank has yet to release its updated data for non-banking financial institutions.

The resources of non-banks inched up by 1.5 percent to P5.23 trillion as of end-December 2023 from P5.15 trillion a year prior. It accounted for 16.5 percent of the sector’s total assets.

Non-bank institutions include BSP-supervised investment houses, financing and investment companies, securities dealers and brokers, pawnshops and lending investors.

They also cover non-stock savings and loan associations, credit card companies, state non-bank financial institutions and authorized agent banks.