Eastern Visayas bank deposits post 11.23% growth in 2016

TACLOBAN CITY, April 25 (PNA) – Bank deposits in Eastern Visayas grew by 11.23 percent to PHP94.61 billion in 2016, showing a sustained economic recovery from the 2013 super typhoon’s devastation, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) reported.

Bank deposits in the region managed to maintain its double-digit annual growth rate in the past four years despite impacts of super typhoon Yolanda that worsened the region’s poverty incidence.

However, last year’s deposit portfolio growth in the region is lower than the 20 percent increase recorded since 2013, the NEDA said, citing data from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC)

NEDA has yet to verify with the Central Bank if election spending in 2016 “triggered withdrawals that are significant enough to slow down growth.”

Deposit liabilities in 2015 stood at PHP85.06 billion. It refers to money placed by an individual or corporation into a banking institution for safekeeping, according to the Central Bank.

The PDIC banking statistics, posted on its website, showed that total number of accounts grew by 7.74 percent from 805,624 in 2015 to 868,000 last year.

The number of banks increased to 206 in 2016 from 191 in the previous year. All provinces also posted significant growth in both accounts and deposits.

Data showed that of the total PHP94.61 billion deposit portfolio, PHP58.11 billion were in Leyte province, PHP10.03 billion in Southern Leyte, PHP10.01 billion in Samar, PHP7.73 billion in Northern Samar, PHP6.09 billion in Eastern Samar, and PHP2.41 billion in Biliran.

The remarkable growth in Leyte is largely contributed by the 45 banks in Tacloban City. The regional capital had PHP36.74 billion deposits as of end of 2016, higher than the PHP34.37 billion in 2015.

The number of accounts in the city rose to 284,884 in 2016 from 269,547 in the previous year.

NEDA identified the sustained post-Yolanda recovery activities from the government and private sector as major contributors.

“The increase was also attributed to increase business activities, inflow of remittances and wider reach of banks due to additional branches, among others,” said NEDA regional director Bonifacio G. Uy.

Leyte and Eastern Samar, which were badly hit by super typhoon Yolanda, posted a remarkable deposit growth from 2015 to 2016. Leyte’s bank deposits rose to PHP58.31 billion from PHP53.21 billion. In Eastern Samar, total deposits went up to PHP6.09 billion from PHP5.4 billion. (Sarwell Q. Meniano/PNA)