|
THE
COUNTRY’S commercial-banking industry lags in terms of
business environment compared with those of its
neighboring countries in Asia.
As such,
the domestic industry may only grow at a moderate pace,
according to a survey of the Business Monitor
International (BMI).
In its
report, the BMI said the Philippine ranking on
commercial-banking business environment is one of the
lowest in the region and compares “poorly” with Hong
Kong, which has the highest score.
The
Philippines got a rating of 45.3 points, which is
especially low compared with
Hong Kong’s leading score of 79.5 points.
The BMI
did not give the rankings for other countries in
Southeast Asia and the rest of the region.
The
banking environment in the Philippines is now closest to
that of Sri Lanka’s, a South Asian country with a
population of about 20 million and a nominal gross
domestic product of about a fifth compared with that of
the Philippines’.
“The
Philippines earns low to moderate scores for each of the
four banking elements of the limits to potential
returns. In relation to other countries surveyed by BMI,
the Philippines is a country where total assets are
moderate, the likely growth in total assets is moderate,
the expected growth in client loans is very small and
there is little potential for banks to earn fees from
distribution of insurance products and other
activities,” according to a brief on the study.
It added
that the country’s ranking may have been lower if not
for the Philippines’ solid performance in the overall
country-risk rating. “[It] has helped to offset low
scores in the other key areas,” the study said.
The
group said it has studied data from the
commercial-banking business to permit a more systematic
and comprehensive comparison of the conditions within
the banking industries of the various countries than was
possible in the past.
“For
each country, it will also facilitate a comparison of
the conditions within the banking sector and conditions
prevailing in other sectors,” it added.
Established in 1984, BMI’s main business is print and
online publishing of specialist business information on
global emerging markets. Topics under its radar include
political risk, finance, macroeconomic performance,
outlook and forecast, industry sectors and
business-operating environment.
This
year, it started covering commercial banking as a
business. |
