FCDU loans up 8% to $5.19 billion

MANILA, Philippines - Loans granted by banks’ foreign currency deposit units (FCDUs) went up by eight percent in the first nine months of the year due mainly from the overall net availments pertaining mostly to transactions of resident borrowers, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

Data released by the BSP yesterday showed that loans disbursed by an FCDU or a unit of a domestic bank or local branch of a foreign lender authorized by the BSP to engage in foreign currency-denominated transactions such as accepting deposits and issuing loans reached $5.19 billion from January to September this year or $384 million higher than the $4.8 billion worth of loans booked as of the same period last year.

FCDU loans as of end-September this year was also 1.3 percent or $68 million more than the $5.121 billion recorded as of end-June due mainly to the $102 million excess of new disbursements over repayments which pertained mostly to transactions of resident borrowers.

The BSP reported that outstanding loans with medium and long-term (MLT) maturities payable over a term of more than one year accounted for 61.5 percent or $3.191 billion of total while loans with short term maturities of up to one year accounted for the remaining 38.5 percent or $1.998 billion.

As usual, resident borrowers have consistently dominated borrowings from FCDUs accounting for about 68.4 percent or $3.55 billion of the total portfolio while non-residents accounted for 31.6 percent or $1.638 billion.

The central bank pointed out that gross disbursements increased by $198 million to $3 billion as of end-September while repayments went up by $425 million to $2.9 billion.

About 54.8 percent or $1.7 billion of the new loan releases were disbursed in favor of residents while the balance of 45.2 percent or $1.3 billion went to non-resident borrowers. Major loan releases during the quarter were in favor of a mix of borrowers such as oil companies as well as manufacturers and exporters of food products, electronics, and tires.

On the other hand, FCDU deposit liabilities went up by 9.1 percent to hit $24.29 billion as of end-September from $22.27 billion in the same period last year.