Commercial, thrift and rural banks have availed of lower rediscounting loans in the first 11 months of the year amid ample liquidity in the system, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Monday.
Data from the BSP showed that the level of availments under the peso rediscount facility at end-November reached P25.251 billion, down 46.8 percent from P47.487 billion in the same period last year.
Of the total loans, 63.6 percent went to commercial credits, 6.6 percent to agriculture and industrial credits, and the remaining 29.8 percent to other credits consisting of capital expenditure, permanent working capital, housing and microfinance and other services.
Under the exporters’ dollar-yen rediscounting facility, aggregate dollar availments of 10 commercial banks for the period inched up more than tenfold to $191 million from $70-million last year. There was no yen-denominated availment during the 11-month period.
The rediscounting availment is a standing credit facility provided by the BSP to help banks liquefy their positions by refinancing the loans they extended to their clients.
It is a privilege of a qualified bank to obtain loans or advances from the central bank using the eligible papers of its borrowers as collateral.
The central bank said the rediscount rates applicable on loan availments for December remained at 4.50 percent for all maturities of peso-denominated loans. This has been in effect since May 9 this year in line with the Monetary Board’s decision to keep rates at their current levels since its May 5 meeting in view of a benign inflation in the policy horizon.
The peso-rediscounting rate is based on the applicable overnight reverse repurchase rate set by the central bank. For loans under the exporters’ dollar and yen facility, the rates are 0.27144 percent and 0.14375 percent, respectively.
The foreign currency denominated rediscount rates were based on the respective London Inter-Bank Offered rate for November, the BSP said.
