The total resources of the country's financial system continued to breach the P30-trillion level, rising by almost nine percent as of end-January, preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

Banks and non-bank financial institutions booked an 8.8 percent growth in assets to P30.79 trillion as of January from P28.3 trillion in the same period in 2023. These resources include funds and assets such as deposits, capital, bonds and debt securities.

The growth in resources was mainly driven by the 10.1 percent expansion in banks, which rose to P25.59 trillion as of January from P23.24 trillion a year ago. It accounted for 83.1 percent of the financial industry's total assets.

Banks include universal and commercial, thrift, digital, and rural and cooperative lenders.

Broken down, the assets of universal and commercial banks stood at P24 trillion as of January, 10 percent higher than the P21.82 trillion recorded in the same period last year. Big banks alone covered 78 percent of the sector's total resources.

Thrift banks also booked a 5.5-percent increase in total resources to P1.08 trillion from P1.02 trillion. Mid-sized banks cornered 3.4 percent of the overall resources.

The BSP also started collecting data for digital banks in March 2023. The digital banking sector saw total resources of P93 billion as of January.

The six online banks that secured licenses to operate in the country were Tonik Digital Bank, GoTyme Bank, Maya Bank, Overseas Filipino Bank, UNObank and UnionDigital Bank.

On the other hand, the central bank has yet to release its updated data for rural and cooperative banks as well as non-banking financial institutions.

The assets of rural and cooperative banks stood at P415 billion as of end-June 2023, while resources of non-banks reached P5.2 trillion as of the same period.

Non-bank institutions include BSP-supervised investment houses, financing and investment companies, securities dealers and brokers, pawnshops and lending investors.

They also cover non-stock savings and loan associations, credit card companies, state non-bank financial institutions and authorized agent banks.

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