Results of the Q4 2024 Senior Bank Loan Officers’ Survey (SLOS) showed that most banks kept their lending standards generally steady for loans to businesses and consumers based on the modal approach.
The survey, done by the Bangko Sentral ng PIlipinas, showed that a majority of respondent banks, 83.3 percent, maintained their credit standards for businesses.
“This marks an increase from the previous quarter, where 80.4 percent of respondents reported unchanged loan standards,” BSP said in a statement.
Over the next quarter, the survey showed that 85.2 percent of participating banks expect lending standards for enterprises to remain generally unchanged.
The results also indicated that a higher percentage of banks at 89.5 percent maintained their credit standards for household loans in Q4, compared to 80.0 percent in Q3.
“The broadly steady loan standards for households were mainly due to the unchanged profile of borrowers, tolerance for risk, and the profitability of the bank’s portfolio,” BSP said.
Over the following quarter, the modal results showed that a majority of respondents, 84.2 percent, anticipate unchanged consumer loan standards.
Most participating banks in the survey, 74.1 percent, indicated unchanged overall demand for enterprise loans in Q4 2024.
BSP explained that this was driven by higher customer inventory financing needs, clients’ more optimistic economic expectations, and an increase in borrowers’ short-term financing needs.
Over the following quarter, the modal method indicated that a majority of respondents, or 61.1 percent, expect steady overall loan demand from enterprises.
Modal-based results also showed a larger percentage of banks indicating unchanged consumer loan demand in Q4 2024 (73.7 percent) compared to Q3 2024 (57.1 percent).
Over the next quarter, results from the modal approach showed that more than half of surveyed banks or 60.5 percent expect steady demand for household credit.
