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THE share of bad loans to banks’ total lending portfolio improved
slightly last January, slipping further to pre-Asian crisis levels,
the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.
In a statement, the BSP said the non-performing
loan ratio of the country’s lenders dipped to 4.67 percent, lower
than the 5.55 percent in January last year.
Banks’ asset quality further improved, as the
BSP has been encouraging them to strengthen their balance sheets
through the sale of bad assets via special purpose vehicles and
public auctions as well as through capital build up and industry
consolidation.
Bad loan levels dipped to P97.65 billion from
P115.26 billion year on year, while lenders’ total loan portfolio
rose to P2.093 trillion from P2.075 trillion over that period.
Banks’ real and other properties acquired (ROPA)
as a percentage of their gross assets dipped to 3.39 percent from
3.82 percent. Total ROPA reached P152.77 billion, down from P170
billion last year.
Lenders’ non-performing assets, which combine
their bad loans and ROPA, slightly declined to P239.38 billion from
P274.6 billion. This brought banks’ non-performing asset ratio to
5.33 percent this year from 6.21 percent last year.
Meanwhile, banks’ restructured loans eased to
3.09 percent of total loans from last year’s 3.79 percent. The
amount of restructured loans reached P65.06 billion, down from P79.6
billion last year.
Past due loans went down to P110.82 billion in
January from P143.9 billion last year.
-- Maricel E. Burgonio
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