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RURAL and cooperative banks registered an improvement in their
combined nonperforming loan ratio at end-September, the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.
In a statement, the BSP said the bad loan ratio
of the banking segment stood at 10.10 percent, for the fifth
consecutive quarter of improvement.
The quarter-on-quarter improvement came about as
the level of bad loans declined by 2.09 percent to P9.45 billion
even as lenders grew their loan portfolio by 2.48 percent to P93.55
billion.
Based on the three major geographical regions,
lenders in the Mindanao area exhibited better loan quality given a
bad loan ratio of 8.60 percent as against the 10.36 and 11.89
percent ratios of banks in the Luzon and Visayas areas.
The ratio of restructured loans to the total
dropped to 1.18 percent from 1.21 percent previously despite the
0.05 percent growth in such exposures. The BSP said this was driven
by the quicker expansion of lenders’ loan portfolios.
The industry made efforts to lower delinquent
loans through foreclosure. But real and other properties acquired (ROPA)
grew by 4.61 percent to P11.53 billion from P11.02 billion
previously.
Consequently, the ratio of ROPA to gross assets
increased by 0.23 percentage point to 7.46 percent from 7.23 percent
earlier.
The ratio of non-performing assets to gross
assets eased by 0.41 percentage point to 11.41 percent from 11.82
percent previously. The 2.19 percent reduction in bad assets to
P17.55 billion from P17.94 billion was complemented by the 1.35
percent rise in gross assets.
-- Chino S. Leyco
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