The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the domestic claims of Other Financial Corporations (OFCs) such as trust and insurance firms increased by 7.9 percent year-on-year to P6.954 trillion as of the fourth quarter of 2020, based on initial data from the Other Financial Corporations Survey (OFCS).
The BSP said the growth in OFCs’ domestic claims were private sector-led, and from depository corporations (DCs) and net claims on central government.
During the period, claims on the private sector was up by 8.9 percent year-on-year to P3.569 trillion due to higher investments in equity and debt securities issued by private nonfinancial corporations, said the BSP.
Net claims on the central government also increased by 9.6 percent to P1.649 trillion because of the higher holdings of debt securities issued by the central government.
Claims on DCs also grew by 4.1 percent to P1.718 trillion because of OFCs’ higher holdings of debt securities issued by banks, said the BSP.
The BSP also reported that OFCs’ net foreign assets amounted to P147.8 billion in the last quarter of 2020, up by 0.4 percent year-on-year. “The growth was brought about by the increase in OFCs’ claims on nonresidents, which were mostly in the form of investments in debt and equity securities, and insurance technical reserves or ITR,” said the BSP.
The OFC assets were funded by issuances of shares and other equity. “This increase in equity issuances, combined with the rise in the sector’s ITR, led to a 7.7 percent rise in the other liabilities of OFCs,” the BSP also noted. This amounted to P7.102 trillion by end-2020.
The OFCS, as described by the BSP, is a comprehensive measure of the claims and liabilities of the OFCs. OFCs are trust entities, private and public insurance corporations, holding companies, and government financial institutions. It also includes non-money market funds covering unit investment trust funds and investment companies, and other financial intermediaries such as offshore banking units and non-banks without quasi-banking functions.