The bad-loan ratio of the commercial and universal banks improved to 13.84 percent in August this year from 14.96 percent in the same period a year ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Friday.Compared with July, the bad-loan ratio improved only by 0.08 percentage points from 13.92 percent owing to the 1.8-percent rise in the total loan portfolio, dampening the 1.2-percent increase in NPLs.Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura said commercial and universal banks’ total loan portfolio increased to P1.789 trillion in August from P1.659 billion in the same period last year.The ratio of restructured loans to total loan portfolio went down by 0.14 percent to 7.44 percent from 7.58 percent last month. This came about as the reduction in restructured loans was complemented by the rise of the total loan portfolio.The amount of the nonperforming loans (NPL) increased to P247.599 billion in August this year, which increased from the registered P248.275 billion last year.The value of real and other properties owned and acquired (Ropoa) increased to P208.094 billion in August this year from P196.377 billion last year.Meanwhile, gross assets almost leveled to 5.66 percent in August from 5.7 percent in July. The 1-percent increase in gross assets to P3.673 billion surpassed the 0.5-percent rise in Ropoa.The amount of the nonperforming assets (NPA), which consist of NPL and Ropoa, significantly increased to P449.263 billion in the first half of the year from P196.377 billion in the same period last year.In August alone, the NPA ratio was cut to 12.30 percent or by 0.2 percentage points from July’s 12.32 percent.The decline in bad assets can be addressed by unloading these via a special purpose asset vehicle, which provides both banks and investors some specific tax incentives.The banking industry hopes Congress will extend the enforcement of the SPV law for another two years, because it will expire in April next year.Both the NPL coverage and NPA coverage ratios fell by 0.33 and 0.05 percent to 52.65 and 32.39 percent. This was a result of growths in NPLs and Ropoa, which overtook the hikes in loan loss reserves and NPA reserves.Loan loss reserves and NPA reserves were reported at P130.36 billion and P145.53 billion.-- Maricel E. Burgonio