Rural banks in the Philippines will soon join other bigger commercial banks in providing digital and contactless transactions to poorer communities or rural areas across the country, especially under the coronavirus pandemic. French Development Agency (AFD website) Thanks to the French Development...
Some senators on Thursday have called on the country’s banks to take responsibility for the operations of their “cash agents” to make sure that the banking public is protected, especially those who rely on “padala” or money sent by relatives to help them get by during the coronavirus...
Senator Grace Poe has called on banks, money transfer companies and regulators to increase their efforts in protecting the remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). (Jansen Romero/MANILA BULLETIN File Photo) “The remittances are crucial to the survival of families of OFWs and play an...
Senator Leila de Lima is urging the Senate to look into the validity of the reported planned merger of two state-owned banks—the Landbank of the Philippines (Landbank) and United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB)—as well as into the anomalies that may arise if the government’s plan proceeds. De...
Financial technology (fintech) companies in the Philippines are poised to overtake brick and mortar banks, debt-watcher Moody’s Investors Service said. In a commentary on Thursday, July 15, Joyce Ong, Moody’s analyst said that fintech has “abundant room” for growth in the country as 70...
The Philippine banking system’s total assets went up by 4.10 percent year-on-year to P19.536 trillion end-May from P18.766 trillion same time in 2020, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the BSP said the industry’s asset expansion continue to be positive...
COVID-related hits on local banks’ asset quality will critically affect their stand-alone credit profiles and viability ratings (VR), said Fitch Ratings. The credit watcher echoed what it said last March that big banks are vulnerable to VR downgrades as the economy remains weak resulting to banks...
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) approved four new banking offices in the last quarter of 2020 compared to 67 new branch applications in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. Based on a BSP circular letter, there was only one approved regular branch and three branch-lite units (BLUs) in the...
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno expects to have two online-only banks with digital bank license to start operation by the second half of 2021, including Overseas Filipino (OF) Bank. Diokno said another two new digital banks with no existing banking license from the BSP...
Moody’s Investors Services has returned its “stable” outlook for Philippine banks with the economy’s gradual but “mild” improvement this year and despite that banks’ asset risks are still on high side. “We have changed the Philippines' banking system outlook to ‘stable’...
The local banking industry implemented a new system of charging fees for ATMs which started yesterday, April 7, 2021. Currently, there are close to 22,000 ATMs nationwide that are used by over 77 million cardholders. These ATMs are interconnected so cardholders of a bank can transact at ATMs of...
Credit watcher Fitch Ratings said Philippine banks’ viability ratings (VRs) are vulnerable to downgrades if the economy fails to lift off this year, resulting to further deterioration of assets and loan quality amid a weak operating environment. “We see more prominent risks of a VR downgrade...
