BSP survey shows unchanged credit standards for enterprise, household loans in Q1 ‘17

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MANILA—Credit standards for enterprise and household loans remain unchanged for the 32nd consecutive quarters as of the first quarter of 2017, the Q1 2017 Senior Bank Loan Officers’ Survey (SLOS) showed.

The survey result was based on the modal approach, which gets the highest number of responses received from 31 of the 35 senior bank loan officers of universal and commercial banks (U/KBs) who joined the survey for the quarter.

In a briefing Friday, Ruby Anne Lemence, bank officer 5 of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Department of Economic Research (DER), however, said credit standards based on diffusion index showed net tightening.

This development was traced to views of stricter financial system regulations, less favorable economic outlook, and lesser tolerance for risk.

DI results were derived from getting the ratio of those who reported to have tightened their standards as against those who eased.

Lemence said a positive DI was arrived at if there are more respondents who reported credit standard tightening while a negative DI shows otherwise.

Using the DI method, credits standards for household loans is also unchanged, Lemence said.

The central bank official traced this to banks’ sustained tolerance for risk, steady profile of borrowers, and stable economic outlook.