No Philippine bank big enough to fail

Central bank pledged vigilance over possibility of future crises by ensuring large banks are adequately capitalized.

None of the country’s operating banks are considered too big to fail, but even then the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) vowed to remain vigilant against future failures eventually proving systemic.

The BSP stressed this point shortly before the economy took a long Lenten holiday that began last Wednesday.

According to BSP Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., while lenders as Banco de Oro Universal Bank, the Bank of the Philippine Islands and the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. engage in multibillion-peso transactions every day for breakfast, none was big enough to pull the entire system down should any one of them ever get into trouble.

We have large banks but I won’t say anyone of them is too big to fail,” Espenilla, head of the powerful supervision and examination sector, said.

Such banks fell into closer regulatory scrutiny as the world’s regulators prepare to impose the terms of the third global agreement made in Basle, Switzerland, more known as Basle 3.

He acknowledged having watched the larger Philippine banks more closely than the other, however, saying that at the end of the day the BSP “does not want them to get into trouble because that would be dangerous.”

View the full story in Business Mirror.