Non-performing Loans in Philippine Banks

[MikeLigalig.com]

by Manila Bulletin

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) yesterday reported that the 38 big banks' non-performing loans (NPL) ratio remained low at 2.34 percent in February, compared to January's 2.35 percent.

When compared to the same period in 2011, NPL ratio improved by 0.59 percentage point from 2.93 percent.

In a statement, the BSP said net of interbank loans, the NPL ratio decreased by 0.03 percentage point to 2.47 percent from January's 2.5 percent and by 0.71 percentage point from February 2011's 3.18 percent ratio.

Total NPLs year-on-year declined to P73.88 billion but higher from January's P73.2 billion. In the meantime, the total loan portfolio in the first two months grew two percent to P2.986 trillion.

The BSP said the industry’s provisioning against potential credit losses remained "adequate despite some decline." For the period, the NPL coverage ratio tempered to 124.2 percent from January's 124.73 percent but strengthened from what was recorded last year of 119.57 percent ratio.
The central bank in the report also noted that non-performing assets (NPA) coverage ratio went down to 64.57 percent from 64.69 percent in January but higher than last year's 61 percent ratio.