Banking & Finance

The House of Representatives has approved on second reading a bill amending the country’s bank secrecy law, which was passed several decades ago. The new measure allows the  Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to look into the accounts of bank officers and employees involved in illegal financial activities. House Bill 6707 aims to fight tax evasion, money laundering, and other …

Security Bank is scaling up efforts to help the communities it serves. The bank is committed to provide tangible support for livelihoods, education, culture, and the environment. From agriculture to disaster response, Security Bank’s initiatives reached communities often left at the margins of growth. In Aklan, the Bank supported 40 solo parents and smallholder farmers by providing cacao seedlings, poultry …

Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has signed a strategic agreement with LANDBANK,  a policy bank driving inclusive and sustainable development and among the country’s largest banks in terms of assets. This will expand digital payment acceptance across key government channels, enabling fast and secure digital transactions for various government services and supporting the government’s vision of a cash-lite …

By Diego C. Cagahastian The Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), decided to prune the nation’s interest rates by 25 basis points at its meeting last December 11. It was the MB’s last meeting for the year, and marked the fifth consecutive time that the rate was decreased. This time around, the Board lowered …

The government, specifically the Senate and the House of Representatives, passes financial laws mandating banks to support  agriculture, small businesses and rural cooperatives by giving them loans. In the case of the agriculture sector, a certain percentage of the banks’ loan allocations should be given to the farmers. But this is seldom observed, with banks giving priority to condominium developers …

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken up the cudgels for small borrowers, especially those who have been victimized by predatory lenders online. The SEC issued an order putting a cap of 6 percent per month or 0.2 percent a day as nominal interest rate that lending firms can charge on loans worth P10,000 and below. The corporate regulatory …

The country is paying more for interest on debts, specifically P723.2 billion from January to October this year, accounting for 37.4 percent of debt service. The  Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said  debt payments increased during the first ten months of the year, driven by a double-digit jump in interest payments to domestic and foreign lenders. The government’s debt payments …

By DIEGO C. CAGAHASTIAN Governor Eli Remolona Jr. of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) tried his hand at financial diplomacy in the international stage, with his plan to make regional financial health a focus for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) next year. Remolona said the Bangko Sentral wanted to play an active role in setting Southeast Asia’s …

Government officials especially the economic team of President Bongbong Marcos were happy to report that the inflation rate in November was down to 1.5%, a tiny improvement from October’s 1.7%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The PSA pointed out that the latest inflation rate figure is lower compared to the same month in 2024, which was 2.5%. In …

The banking industry is robust, and retail investors, businesses and individual consumers are availing themselves with affordable loans from the banks. This bodes well for a growing economy, even if saddled with various political woes. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has released its preliminary data showing bank lending continued to expand in October, driven by steady credit demand from …