DEPOSITS continued to fuel the operations of local banks amounting to P6.4 trillion as of the third quarter, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The central bank said total deposits for the quarter amounted to P6.4 trillion. This was 16.3 percent higher than the year-ago level of only P5.5 trillion.
The central bank also said savings and time deposits remained the primary sources of funds for the banking system.
“The rapid growth could be attributed to the shift of investors’ funds from the BSP’s SDA [special deposit account] facility to bank deposits as a result of the fine-tuning of access of trust departments or entities to the BSP SDA facility,” the central bank said.
Early in 2013 the central bank evicted so-called investment management accounts out of the BSP’s low-risk but high-yielding special deposits window.
The central bank also traced the higher deposits to steadily growing corporate profits and robust economic expansion.
In particular, savings deposits registered growth averaging 16 percent during the period. Savings operations account for nearly half of the funding base of the banks.
Demand deposits, meanwhile, expanded by 18.8 percent, while time deposits expanded by 14.7 percent from the level posted a year ago.