MANILA – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy to accept as reserve requirement the compliance of rural and cooperative banks’ (RCBs) lending to the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) affected by the pandemic has posted gains.
In a virtual briefing Thursday, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said 66 RCBs lent about PHP1.5 billion to MSMEs in the reserve week ending July 23, 2020.
This is an expansion from the PHP1 billion extended by 39 RCBs in the week ending April 30, 2020.
Diokno said 10 RCBs also used new loans to finance critically impacted large enterprises worth PHP100 million as their compliance to the reserve requirement.
He said “amid the Covid-19 pandemic, rural banks have been actively lending and extending financing relief to the MSME sector.”
“The rural and cooperative banks also exhibited commitment to empower and assist MSMEs in critically impacted large enterprises in rural communities by extending, renewing, and restructuring loans to the sectors,” he added.
In a statement, the central bank said results of a latest BSP baseline survey showed that RCBs adopted properly to the movement restrictions imposed by the government since middle of March to arrest the rise of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.
It said the sector also tapped technological innovations to continue to serve their clients and was able to return to normal operations following the easing of quarantine measures.
Citing BSP data, it added RCBs’ balance sheets continue to show positive figures, with the end-March 2020 resources up by 5.9 percent year-on-year to PHP265.7 billion.
The sector’s lending business was mainly driven by deposits, which grew by 6.1 percent year-on-year to PHP188.2 billion.
Non-performing loan ratio declined to 11.2 percent at the end of the first quarter from 11.6 percent in the same period last year. (PNA)
