By Lee C. Chipongian The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has increased the single borrower’s limit (SBL) for banks and non-banks to 30 percent from 25 percent for a period of six months, part of measures that the BSP is implementing to help the financial sector continue under a pandemic outbreak lockdown. These set of additional regulatory relief measures is what BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno described as “time-bound” and a “temporary relaxation of BSP regulations on compliance reporting by banks, calculation of penalties on required reserves, and SBL.” Based on BSP Memorandum No. M-2020-011 (“Additional Operational Relief for BSFIs Affected by Measures to Manage the Corona Virus Disease 2019 Situation and its Health and Safety Risks”), which was signed by Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier last Thursday, the BSP approved temporary measures to assist BSP supervised financial institutions (BSFIs) in “focusing their resources on the continuous delivery of financial services during this extraordinary situation and supporting the BSFI’s subsequent recovery efforts.” “The measures ease certain BSP regulatory requirements governing banking operations for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine and one month thereafter. The period of eligibility may be extended depending on the developments related to the COVID-19 situation,” said Fonacier in the memo. The SBL limits lending of a bank to a single client to only 25 percent of their capital. But from time to time, the BSP increases the SBL cap or grants separate SBL. As a general rule, banks should spread their risks. By limiting the lending to a single client, losses will be more easily avoided. Aside from the increased SBL, other relief measures are: *Relaxation in the maximum penalty that may be imposed for reserve deficiencies. The maximum penalty that may be imposed by the BSP for reserve deficiencies shall be the Overnight Lending Facility rate plus 50 basis points, provided that the maximum reserve deficiency of the BSFI shall be 200 basis points above the reserve requirement. *Relaxation of the notification requirements related to changes in banking hours. A bank need not inform the BSP of changes in its banking hours. *Relaxation of the notification requirements on the temporary closure of bank branch/branch-lite units and BSFI offices/service units. A BSFI shall submit a consolidated report on the bank branches/branch-lite-units or BSFI offices/service units that were temporarily closed during the enhanced community quarantine period to the appropriate supervising department of the BSP on or before June 30, 2020. *Relaxation in the regulations governing the submission of reports and other documents to the BSP-Financial Supervision Sector. *Extension in the period of compliance with BSP supervisory requirements. Fonacier said that these measures, with heightened health and safety risks, are expected to affect the ability of banks and non-banks to "render financial services to the general public.”