The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has eased the restrictions on banks’ exposure in the property sector and excluded private housing and public infrastructure construction loans from the 20-percent ceiling on real estate loans.
The policy-setting Monetary Board of the BSP has approved the new regulations that will rationalize the limits on real estate loans, which were first instituted in reaction to the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
The BSP said it is imposing a single 20-percent overall limit on the real estate lending of universal and commercial banks primarily as a prudential safequard against over-concentration of credit to commercial lending.
Under the new rules, the BSP said loans for the construction of public infrastructure are now excluded from the definition of real estate loans and consequently from the 20-percent limit.
from abs-cbnnews.com