posted January 04, 2016 at
11:40 pm by Julito G. Rada [manilastandardtoday.com ]
Real estate loans jumped 26
percent in the third quarter of 2015 from a year ago, on the back of strong
demand for office space and residential condominium units, data from Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas show.
Bangko Sentral said real
estate loans granted by banks and their trust departments reached P1.232
trillion in the third quarter, up from P977 billion a year earlier. It was also higher than P1.176 trillion in
the second quarter.
The third-quarter figure
included P1.228 trillion granted by banks and P4.4 billion by trust
departments.
Real estate loans in the
third quarter represented 20.72 percent of banks’ total loan portfolio, higher
than 20.42 percent in the second quarter.
Commercial real estate
loans in the third quarter climbed to P805 billion from P765 billion in the
second quarter.
Meanwhile, residential real
estate loans improved to P427.370 billion in the third quarter from P411.181
billion in the second quarter.
Banks continued to expand
their branch network in 2015, despite the exit of weak players, Bangko Sentral
said.
The total number of bank
branches increased to 10,606 in the third quarter from 10,528 in the second
quarter even as banks’ head offices during the period decreased to 635 from
638.
The number of head offices
of universal and commercial banks increased to 37 in the third quarter from 36
in the second quarter.
Thrift banks had a total of
2,052 offices (including branches), up from 2,013 in the second quarter.
Bangko Sentral said savings and time deposits
remained the main sources of funds for domestic banks in the third quarter.
Banks’ total deposits as of
end-September 2015 grew 7.8 percent to P6.9 trillion from a year ago.
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