The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will implement the live reporting of the Enhanced Comprehensive Credit and Equity Exposures Report (COCREE 2.0) by Dec. 31, 2024 after extending for another three months its pilot testing to allow banks and non-banks to use the updated COCREE 2.0 Report Package (CRP 2.0).
BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier said in a memo that the updated CRP 2.0 which took into consideration industry comments submitted to the BSP during the ongoing pilot test, contains the following enhancements: Data Dictionary–Line-item Instructions (DD-LI) User Guide, which provides an overview and overall instructions on CRP 2.0 and clarifies the interrelatedness of the Data Dictionary and Line-item Instructions; and the Data Dictionary (DD), which provides additional instructions in reporting the data elements such as new acceptable valid values for unavailable data and changes in the Philippine Standard Geographic Code.
The CRP 2.0 also includes the Line-item Instructions (LI) which provides additional guidance and reference to the data elements in the DD; and XML Schema Design (XSD) and .TXT format which align the reporting structure with the updated DD and LI.
Meanwhile, the updated schedule for the live implementation of the COCREE 2.0 is Dec. 31, 2024 which is the reporting period for universal and commercial banks, thrift banks, digital banks, non-bank financial institutions with quasi-banking functions and trust corporations. The previous schedule is Sept. 30 this year.
The reporting frequency is monthly with a due date of 25 business days after the reference reporting period.
As for the smaller banks such as rural and cooperative banks, the reporting period for the live implementation is March 31, 2025. The reporting frequency is quarterly.
Fonacier said pilot testing will run until the live implementation of the COCREE 2.0 and only records of reporting periods prior to the scheduled live implementation but after Sept. 30, 2023 can be used for pilot testing purposes.
Records that were submitted during the pilot phase are “primarily for testing purposes and cannot be considered as live submission,” she added.
Fonacier also said the submission of a subset of the entire COCREE 2.0 is permitted while on the pilot phase but with the understanding that this “represents a substantial portion of the actual data points and fields for testing in order to optimize the benefits of the pilot exercise.”
“The use of dummy data is highly discouraged,” she added.
COCREE 2.0 which enhances the 2021 version of the same report, is expected to further strengthen the surveillance and analysts of emerging risks to all banks.
As per BSP Circular No. 1184 which upgraded the COCREE reporting, the report is “designed to capture granular borrower/counterparty information for all credit and equity exposures of BSP supervised financial institutions (BSFIs).”
Since the expanded and more granular surveillance of banks’ credit and equity exposures will improve the detection of emerging risks in the financial system, it could avoid a contagion.
The expanded COCREE will have more data points, from 85 to 164 to incorporate other relevant supplemental details, said the BSP in a previous report.
Before COCREE, there was the CREDEX first adopted in 2003, but the past monitoring of bank exposures was limited since the latter will only check exposures with outstanding balances of P1 million and above. As such, it does not capture the granular micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and consumer lending.
The COCREE, using new technologies, is expected to fill up the gaps in bank exposures’ surveillance since it will have 85 data points which will be later expanded to 164 compared to just 35 under the CREDEX.
The BSP said COCREE will provide more granular information to support on-site examination and off-site surveillance activities, including forward-looking stress testing and scenario analysis, both on a micro and macro level.
It further noted that all credit and equity exposures, except written-off accounts with nominal value, are required to be reported in the COCREE.
This allows the BSP to conduct an in-depth analysis of borrower performance and behavior, including the portfolio of retail consumers and micro and small borrowers that were excluded from the CREDEX. The increase in data elements, specifically the identifiers, also improved the capability of the BSP to distinguish one borrower from another.