ECONOMIC GROWTH. A major street in Tacloban City where many banks are situated. Bank deposits in Eastern Visayas grew by 7.14 percent to PHP177.47 billion in 2023, mainly due to high government spending on infrastructure development and growth in e-commerce, an official said on Wednesday (June 26, 2024). (Photo courtesy of Traveltasia)
TACLOBAN CITY – Bank deposits in Eastern Visayas grew by 7.14 percent to PHP177.47 billion in 2023, mainly due to high government spending on infrastructure development and growth in e-commerce, an official said on Wednesday.
Deposit liabilities in the region grew by PHP11.84 billion compared to PHP165.64 billion the previous year, based on the record of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC).
Deposit liabilities refer to money placed by an individual or corporation into a banking institution for safekeeping.
Regional Development Council financial intermediaries’ private sector representative, Francisco Barredo, said in a phone interview the massive government infrastructure spending buoyed the growth.
“A huge budget for infrastructure has been poured into the region in the past years. This activity creates a ripple effect and translates into deposits,” Barredo told the Philippine News Agency on Wednesday.
Data from the Department of Public Works and Highways showed that the 2023 budget for the region rose to PHP51.47 billion from PHP43.52 billion in 2022.
Meanwhile, the PDIC banking statistics on its website showed that accounts grew by 9.04 percent from 1,377,026 in 2022 to 1,501,608 last year.
The number of banks increased to 312 in 2023 from 303 in the previous year. All provinces also posted significant growth in both accounts and deposits.
“Aside from the physical banks, another contributor to the increase in the number of accounts is e-commerce and electronic banking as a way of fast and efficient banking,” Barredo said.
Victorio Tingcang, area director of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Tacloban branch, said electronic transactions connect financially underserved Filipinos to formal financial services providers.
“The regional economy is very good. Digital banking also allowed common people to do banking easily, and that contributed to significant growth,” Tingcang said.
He said the expansion of existing banks and the opening of new banks in the region also helped provide for easy transfer of money and encouraged businesses to expand their operations outside major commercial districts.
More banks have opened branches in Leyte, Eastern Samar, Samar, and Southern Leyte, based on the PDIC report.
Data showed that of the PHP177.47-billion deposit portfolio, PHP107.03 billion was in Leyte province, PHP20.44 billion in Samar, PHP18.24 billion in Southern Leyte, PHP14.5 billion in Northern Samar, PHP12.63 billion in Eastern Samar, and PHP4.6 billion in Biliran.
The remarkable growth in Leyte is largely driven by the operation of 50 banks in Tacloban City.
The regional capital had PHP64.46 billion in deposits as of the end of 2023, higher than PHP55.47 billion in 2022.
The number of accounts in the city rose to 432,729 in 2023 from 384,688 in the previous year. (PNA)
