Mergers and consolidation in Philippines' banking system resulted in fewer number of head offices but further improvement in banking services.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data showed that banks' head offices totaled to 797 as of end-September 2009 from the previous quarter's 804 while total branches totaled to 7,117 as of the end of end-third quarter of 2008 from end-June 2009's 7,094.
Rural banks (RBs), in particular, have 686 head offices as of end-September last year from the previous quarter's 692 while other offices or branches totaled to 1,486 as of end-September last year from 1,480 in the previous quarter.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said rural banks' total assets is less than three percent of the country's banking system and about half of these assets are held by 50 biggest rural banks.
â€So as far as the bank is concerned there are actually more banking offices,†he said.
Espenilla said the public should not consider drop in the number of banks was only due to closures citing that this incident is minimal.
He said the more important thing to look at is that the drop in the number of banks was due to continued effort to make banks stronger through mergers.
The areas of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (CALABARZON) and Central Luzon have the biggest concentration of RBs in the country, he said.
While bulk of the branches nationwide are those of universal and commercial banks (U/KBs).
Espenilla said there are areas that are still being not served by banks but this is only due to security issues.
He cited that â€banks are private businesses and the basic requirement is that a business can operate unhampered and unthreatened.â€
“You won’t even begin to worry about profits if your life is at risk,†he added. (PNA)
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