BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno has directed banks to give debt relief to borrowers to help them cope with the economic pain brought by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.
Philippine lenders are well capitalized and stable and can absorb some of this relief in the meantime, the central bank said.
The regulatory relief measures include exclusion from the past due loan ratio of loans to affected borrowers for a period of one year and staggered booking of provision for probable losses over a period of five years, subject to prior approval of the BSP.
The measures aim to encourage banks to grant a temporary grace period for loan payments or restructure loan accounts of their borrowers.
"Meanwhile, we strongly encourage our supervised financial institutions to temporarily suspend all fees and charges imposed on the use of online banking platforms or electronic money, including those imposed on the use of Instapay or PesoNet electronic fund transfer. This will enable the general public to facilitate banking transactions during the Covid-19 situation," Diokno said. (CSL)