VEHICLES slow down while entering toll booths at the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in this photo taken early this year. Thanks to the relative efficiency of the Philippines’ seaports and highway networks including NLEX, BPI Family Savings Bank, the country’s largest thrift bank, has increased lending activities, especially those outside the greater Metro Manila area. --Romy Florante

METRO Manila’s seaports and highway networks have done the economy much good, allowing banks to conduct increased lending activities in recent months, the Philippines’ largest thrift bank said Tuesday.

At its year-end briefing, industry leader BPI Family Savings Bank officials cited the roles played by the port of Batangas and Luzon Island’s North and South Expressways as vital arteries to commerce. Besides serving the economy, these have made business more prosperous than ever.

As a result, instead of being centered in greater Metro Manila, lending patterns have shifted outside the Philippines’ biggest urban area as more and more borrowers have made increased demands from lenders.

“The North Luzon expressway is making things happen in Central Luzon. Businesses are sprouting all over areas that proximate Subic and Clark and the San Fernando, Pampanga, area,” BPI Family Savings bank president Alfonso Salcedo Jr. told reporters.

According to Salcedo, Pampanga’s biggest city is also the bank’s biggest business center, permitting the Ayala-led lender to sell housing, auto and entrepreneurial-loan products the fastest anywhere in the country. The bank’s housing loans accounts for half of its lending portfolio while auto loans and lending for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up 25 percent each.

Salcedo said the low interest-rate regime has pushed housing-loan activities into high gear as interest rates of more or less 18-percent five years ago have since fallen to 8 percent or even lower.

BPI Family’s drive to serve its customers’ needs has led to programs, which permit borrowers to refinance their loans at lower-interest rates.

The bank’s lending program for SMEs was expected to grow by as much as 14 percent or higher than the industry average, Salcedo said.

“This clearly shows that infrastructure is important,” he remarked.

For its part, lending activities of its branches in Mindanao—where the state of infrastructure is poorer than Metro Manila—“showed some picking up as borrowers there played catch up,” according to Salcedo.

However, despite the lending increase, the bank’s portfolio of nonperforming loans (NPL) diminished to only 2.7 percent as of end-September this year from four percent a year ago.

“We have a well-disciplined credit committee that keeps a tight watch but we also improved our turnaround time and that explains the NPL reduction,” Salcedo said.

Ports, highway networks increase lending activities outside Manila

METRO Manila’s seaports and highway networks have done the economy much good, allowing banks to conduct increased lending activities in recent months, the Philippines’ largest thrift bank said Tuesday.

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