BSP: Jan-Nov rediscounting loans down to P47.5B

Banks’ availments from the central bank’s rediscounting facility plunged by 71 percent as of November compared to a year earlier, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported Friday. BSP said loan availments of commercial, thrift, and rural banks amounted to P47.487 billion in January-November this year, down from P165.356 billion in the same period last year. The rediscounting facility allows banks to borrow from the central bank by presenting the promissory notes of their borrowers as collateral. The BSP said that bulk of borrowings from the rediscounting facility went to commercial credits, which accounted for 54.3 percent. “The availments under the peso rediscounting facility exclude the P9 million rediscounting loans granted to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) affected by tropical storms ‘Ondoy’ and ‘Pepeng,’" the central bank said in a statement. It can be recalled that the BSP established a P5-billion budget in its rediscounting facility to assist typhoon-affected MSMEs. Under the export dollar rediscounting facility, the central bank said dollar availments of seven commercial banks amounted to $70.3 million as of end-November from $49 million in the same period last year. The BSP said the loan availments under the export dollar rediscounting facility benefited 28 exporters. There were no availments under the BSP’s export yen rediscounting facility for the January-November period, the central bank said. The BSP estimated its peso rediscounting rate at 4 percent annually for all maturities effective Feb. 1. For December, the BSP pegged the rates at 0.26063 percent and 0.12 percent a year for dollar and yen rediscounting facilities, respectively. — Jesse Edep/OMG, GMANews.TV