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DEPOSITS with the country’s Foreign Currency
Deposit Units (FCDU) increased in January due to the growth in both
resident and nonresident placements, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
(BSP) said.
BSP data showed that January FCDU
deposit liabilities grew $1.04 billion, or 5.81 percent to $18.86
billion compared with $17.82 billion in the same period in last
year.
Month on month, total FCDU loans
also increased by 3.28 percent, or about $60 million compared to
$18.26 billion in December.
An FCDU is a unit of a domestic
bank or local branch of a foreign lender authorized by the BSP to
engage in foreign currency-denominated transactions such as
accepting deposits and issuing loans.
More than half or 51 percent of
the FCDU loan portfolio had medium to long-term maturities and
mostly lent out to the private sector.
About 82 percent of outstanding
FCDU loans went to Philippine residents. FCDU borrowers with foreign
exchange earnings have a natural hedge for their foreign exchange
exposures.
--Chino S. Leyco
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