Domestic claims of other financial entities grew 9%

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that the domestic claims of “other financial corporations,” or OFCS, grew by 9 percent in the first quarter of the year.

Based on preliminary data by the survey, claims by Ofcs—various financial entities such as insurance and pension funds, broker dealers, securities investment trusts, government financial institutions and finance companies—hit P6.8 trillion in the first three months of the year, up from the P6.5 trillion in the same quarter last year.

The BSP attributed the increase mainly to the rise in the claims on the private sector and depository corporations (DCS) as well as the sector’s net claims on central government (CG).

The OFC survey is an analytical gauge that provides a comprehensive measure of the claims or assets and liabilities of OFCS in the Philippines.

The preliminary OFC survey covers data sourced from individual financial statements from 117 private and public insurance companies, 25 holding companies, 6 government financial institutions, 5 investment companies and 2 other financial intermediaries except insurance.

It also includes consolidated financial statements from 27 trust institutions, 3 trust corporations, 18 financing companies, 13 securities dealers/brokers, a lending investor, 4 Authorized Agent Banks (AAB) foreign exchange corporations, 11 investment houses, 1,013 pawnshops, 5 credit card companies and an offshore banking unit.

Claims on the private sector grew by 12.8 percent during the period to P3.5 trillion from P3.1 trillion in the same period last year. The BSP said the rise was due to higher investments by OFCS in equity and debt securities issued by private nonfinancial corporations.

Claims on DCS expanded by 9.5 percent from P1.6 trillion in the first quarter of last year to P1.7 trillion on account of OFCS’ higher holdings of bank-issued debt securities and increased deposits.

Moreover, net claims on the central government rose by 0.8 percent from the previous year’s level of P1.5 trillion to P1.6 trillion in the first quarter of this year.

“This slight upturn may be attributed to the drop in the liabilities of OFCS to the CG as well as the increase in the sector’s holdings of debt securities issued by the central government,” the BSP said.

Meanwhile, the net foreign assets (NFA) of OFCS rose by 42.6 percent to P156.2 billion in the first quarter from P109.5 billion in the same quarter last year.

“The growth was brought about by the increase in OFCS’ claims on nonresidents, which were mostly in the form of investments in debt and equity securities and insurance technical reserves,” the BSP said.