Big banks’ bad loans down at 1.98%

The non-performing loans (NPL) of the country’s biggest banks dropped further to below 2 percent of their total loan portfolios in November 2014, indicating that individual banks took prudential measures to maintain financial stability as they also raised their loan-loss provisions, the central bank said.

Figures released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Tuesday showed that the NPL ratio of universal and commercial banks (U/KBs) by end-November stood at 1.98 percent, down from 2.38 percent a year earlier.