BAP head urges banks’ continued service

THE country’s biggest banks must continue to serve the public amid the ongoing enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the head of the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) said.

“The banking industry must continue to operate even under the most difficult of circumstances if our economy is to continue to function,” BAP President Cezar Consing told bankers in a statement released on Monday.

He added that the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis on the economy, including banks’ corporate and consumer borrowers, “is becoming more apparent.”

Thus, he advised BAP members must maintain reasonable lending rates with the objective of trying to keep such rates as close as possible to pre-ECQ levels.

Consing further asked banks to maintain a level of branch presence that allows for the execution of transactions that cannot be performed digitally.

“Even if this means hurdling checkpoints to join the skeletal forces in the head office units or to help staff, the designated branches that must remain open,” he said.

“If our head office units are insufficiently staffed, our branches and ATMs (automated teller machines) will cease to function. Not everything can be done digitally, at least not right now,” Consing added.

He also encouraged banks to keep their digital channels open; ensure availability of cash in their open branches and the majority of their ATMs; and contribute to stable and liquid financial markets.

“This crisis will test the quality of our loans, the marks of our securities, the sufficiency of our capital, and the resiliency of our operations and our people. The industry was strong going into this crisis. We want to emerge from this crisis with our strength and stability unquestioned,” Consing said.

“There are businesses and consumers to finance, payrolls to be met, bills to be paid. Our country needs our very best efforts in these difficult times,” he added.