THE central bank has noted a significant increase in loans extended to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as well as large enterprises that are booked in compliance with their reserve requirements (RR), following its relief measures to ease the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a press release, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) preliminary data revealed that for the reserve week ending July 23, 2020, 97 banks had extended loans to MSMEs as an alternative mode of compliance with the RR with an average daily balance of P84.2 billion.
“This indicates that banks have continued to grant new loans or re-finance existing ones to MSMEs and large enterprises even through the quarantine. We see this contributing positively to whole-of-nation efforts to mitigate the economic impact of the health crisis,” BSP Gov. Benjamin Diokno said.
The BSP reported it was a substantial increase of 750.5 percent from the P9.9 billion average daily balance of MSME loans used by 55 banks immediately after the effectivity of the measure during the reserve week ending April 30, 2020.
Meanwhile, 13 banks provided loans to large enterprises as an alternative mode of compliance with the RR, with average daily loan balance of P12.3 billion based on preliminary data.
This represents a significant increase from the P376 million average daily loan balance to large enterprises which was used by 12 banks during the reserve week ending on June 4, 2020, the start of the effectivity of the measure.
MSME members of the Filipino-Cebuano Business Club (FilCeb) see the need for the economy to slowly recover as they are heavily affected by the weakening spending appetite of consumers.
Rey Calooy, president of FilCeb, earlier expressed hope that they would be beneficiaries of a stimulus package to help the group’s struggling members.
Calooy said some members had adopted guerilla marketing and other strategies just to stay afloat during these challenging times. (JOB)