DBP eyes 80% of loan portfolio for infra

MANILA -- Stateowned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is willing to finance bigticket infrastructure projects under the Duterte administration’s Build, Build, Build program.

In a briefing Monday, DBP president and CEO Cecilia Borromeo said the bank wants to allocate at least 80 percent of its loan portfolio for infrastructure projects.

She said DBP would really need additional funds to increase its loan portfolio and they plan to back this by more aggressive deposit-taking activities, with the bank eyeing to open 10 new branches and eight extension offices nationwide this year alone.

These offices are expected to bring the bank’s total branches to 135 and the extension offices to 11 by the end of this year.

“Right now we have a very healthy headroom for additional lending to infrastructure projects. And we want to continue to fuel that by low-cost deposits. We want our countrymen to be our partner, transforming their savings into infrastructure projects,” she said.

“If needed, we can also raise funds but that is not yet in our priorities this year because as I’ve said our ratios would show that we still have enough funds to support even a 26 percent growth in loan portfolio,” she said.

Last year, the bank registered a 21.82 percent increase in gross loan portfolio to P293.47 billion, 35 percent of which, amounting to P76.23 billion, was allocated for infrastructure and logistics projects.

Borromeo also said they also plan to increase the bank's total assets of P597.41 billion last year to about P1 trillion during its jubilee year in 2022.

The DBP chief said they are not allocating

any specific amount for the infrastructure projects as long as it is still within the allowable single borrower’s limit set by the central bank.

“This administration would like to be labeled as the administration that supported the infra or the golden years of infra projects in the country. As a policy map we want to support that. That in a way is refocusing or reminding the public that we are the infra bank,” she said.

The National Economic and Development Authority has identified at least 75 infrastructure projects and Borromeo noted that most of these will be funded by official development assistance (ODA) loans while others will be funded partly through private-public partnership.

“Whatever the modality will be we are ready to fund it or partner with them,” she said.