The total resources of the country’s financial system increased by eight percent to P27.51 trillion as of end-October from same period in 2021 of P25.39 trillion, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data.

The banking sector accounted for 83 percent of financial resources with P22.74 trillion, up by 10 percent from P20.68 trillion same time last year. These are mainly banks’ deposits, bond issuances and capital infusion.

The 45 big banks or the universal and commercial banks contributed much to industry resources with P21.39 trillion which was 12.17 percent higher from end-October 2021 of P19.07 trillion.

The resources of the 43 thrift banks, meantime, continued to decline at P962 billion from P1.28 trillion last year, or down by 24.78 percent.

Rural banks’ resources, which usually have a lag time, was reported at P390 billion as of end-June, up by 16.76 percent from same time in 2021 of P334 billion. There are 403 rural and cooperative banks in the country.

The BSP reported that non-banks’ total resources which are also as of end-June only, amounted to P4.77 trillion, up by 1.44 percent from P4.70 trillion in 2021.

Non-banks are investment houses, finance companies, investment companies, securities dealers/brokers, pawnshops and lending investors.

Non Stocks Savings and Loan Associations, credit card companies under the BSP supervision, private insurance firms, Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System are also classified as non-bank financial institutions.

The are currently 1,334 non-banks without quasi banking functions such as pawnshops, and five non-banks with quasi banking functions.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a November report on the Philippines, said the banking system continued to display resilience especially during the pandemic.

It said local banks are “emerging relatively unscathed from the severe downturn in 2020” while profitability has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

It also noted that non-performing loans or NPL have increased only modestly. “Banks have increased capital and loan loss provisioning in response to the crisis, with the NPL coverage ratio (allowance for credit loss to gross NPL) at a conservative 100 percent,” said the IMF, using end-August NPL data.

Systemic financial risks are assessed to be low, and the banking system has sufficient liquidity and capital buffers, said the IMF.

Based on the IMF’s own stress tests, it said Philippine banks “could withstand exceptionally severe shocks in the baseline.”