Published on 27 October 2012 [ manilatimes.net ]
Written by MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO REPORTER
Total residential real estate loans
(RRELs) during the second quarter of the year reached P244.4 billion, the highest
so far since end-March 2008, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
showed on Friday.
BSP data showed that this was 5.1
percent or P11.9 billion higher than last quarter’s P232.6 billion and 23.2
percent (P46.1 billion) more than year ago’s P198.4 billion.
“Growth stemmed mostly from U/KBs
[universal/commercial banks], which accounted for 70.2 percent [P8.3 billion]
of the P11.9 billion quarter-on-quarter hike and 79.9 percent [P36.7 billion]
of the P46.1 billion rise, year-on-year,” the central bank added.
The data also showed that thrift banks
(TBs) held the remaining 29.8 percent, or P3.5 billion and 20.3 percent, or
P9.4 billion of the cited quarterly and yearly increments.
The BSP data further showed that by
type of bank, U/KBs cornered a bigger share of total RRELs at 57.4 percent
(P140.3 billion), better than the 56.8 percent (P132 billion) registered last
quarter. Consequently, TBs share of RRELs shrank to 42.6 percent (P104.1
billion) of total RRELs from 43.2 percent (P100.6 billion).
The central bank data reported that as
proportion of total loan portfolio (TLP), RRELs maintained the previous
quarter’s 6.7 percent ratio following the approximately equal growth rates
earned by TLP (5.8 percent) and RRELs (5.1 percent).
“Said ratio, however, increased over
year ago’s 6.2 percent owing to the faster growth rate of RRELs [23.2 percent],
which was almost twice 6.2 percent owing to the faster growth rate of RRELs
[23.2 percent], which was almost twice that of TLP [13.4 percent],” the BSP
data showed.
Also, non-performing RRELs to total
RRELs to total NPLs ratio rose to 7.7 percent from 7.4 percent during the last
quarter, albeit better than year ago’s 7.8 percent. By industry, the BSP data
showed that TBs performed slightly better in terms of the non-performing RRELs
to total RRELs ratio, posting 3.5 percent compared to U/KBs’ 4.4 percent at
end-second quarter 2012. Basing on the non-performing RRELs to total NPLs
ratio, however, U/KBs had a more acceptable ratio of 6 percent as against TBs’
14.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the central bank data
showed that despite the improving loan performance ratios, banks increased
their buffers, reaching 43 percent as of end-June 2012 from last quarter’s 38.7
percent and year ago’s 33.8 percent, both times on the back of a decrease in
non-performing RRELs (0.4 percent or less than half of the P100 million from
last quarter and 3 percent, or P300 million from a year ago) simultaneous with
the expansion in loan reserves on RRELs (10.8 percent, or P400 million from
last quarter and 23.4 percent, or P800 million from year ago).
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