Financial resources up 8.5% in 2022

The country’s financial system has total resources of P28.612 trillion at the end of 2022, up by 8.5 percent from the previous year’s P26.357 trillion, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data.

Total resources include both banks and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). In a first semester 2022 financial sector report, the BSP said the expansion in total resources came largely from deposits which were channeled mostly to lending and investing activities.

Banks include the universal and commercial banks, thrift banks and rural/cooperative banks.

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 NBFIs.

The banking sector accounted for 83 percent of the total with P23.697 trillion resources which was up by 10.5 percent from 2021’s P21.44 trillion.

The non-banks contributed the rest. However non-banks’ data have a lag period and is up to end-September 2022 only of P4.915 trillion, which was lower than same period in 2021 of P4.917 trillion.

In a separate data, as of end-2022 the total banking system’s total assets also increased by 10.6 percent to P23.034 trillion from P20.828 trillion. These are the cash and due from banks, net investments and the net real and other properties acquired or ROPA.

Banking resources come from deposits, capital infusion and bond issuances. As of end-December last year, the big banks’ total resources reached P22.29 billion, up by 12.8 percent from P19.761 trillion.

The resources of the thrift banking sector, meantime, declined by 23.9 percent to P1.018 trillion from P1.338 trillion in 2021.

As for rural banks, similar with non-banks’ data, it also has a lag time and the latest report is up to end-September 2022 only. Rural/cooperative banks have total resources of P390 billion, up by 14.4 percent from same period in 2021 of P341 billion.

The BSP as of end-2022 monitors and supervises 45 big banks, 43 thrift banks and 403 rural/cooperative banks. Since last year, the BSP has approved six digital banks but they are not yet included in the 2022 financial resources tally.

There are currently 1,343 non-banks without quasi banking functions such as pawnshops, and five non-banks with quasi banking functions.