Philippine financial system grows by nearly 8% to PHP33.66T

As of end-January 2025, the Philippines' financial system resources grew to PHP33.66 trillion, marking an increase of nearly eight percent from a year earlier.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that banks' total resources climbed to PHP27.95 trillion in January 2025, up from PHP25.62 trillion the previous year and slipping slightly month-on-month by 0.9% from December's PHP33.96 trillion.

Universal and commercial banks saw their resources rise to PHP26.14 trillion, while thrift banks’ resources increased to PHP1.16 trillion.

Digital banks experienced significant growth with resources expanding by nearly 44 percent to PHP133.3 billion in January from PHP92.6 billion the previous year.

Rural and cooperative banks also saw a substantial increase of 18.1 percent in their resources, rising to PHP527.1 billion from PHP446.5 billion.

Non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) contributed to the overall growth with resources increasing by PHP140 billion to PHP5.7 trillion as of end-January 2025.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., attributed this growth primarily to faster loan demand and lower lending costs resulting from interest rate cuts and reserve requirement reductions.