The total assets of the Philippine banking system grew 7.55 percent year-on-year to P28.76 trillion as of end-September 2025, according to data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The figure was higher than the P26.74 trillion recorded in the same month last year and the P27.73 trillion posted in August.
Data showed the growth in bank assets remained stronger than the country’s economic expansion, which slowed to 4.0 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2025.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the growth of bank assets in September was “still better than gross domestic product growth” due to recent policy rate cuts imposed by the BSP.
The Monetary Board reduced key policy rates to 4.75 percent during its policy meeting on Oct. 9, 2025.
Ricafort said the rate cuts, “infused more than P700 billion that increased banks’ loanable funds and also reduced borrowing costs that increased demand for bank loans that grew by at least 11 percent year-on-year in recent months, or twice faster versus GDP growth.”
He said the faster loan growth has been the largest contributor to the continued expansion in bank assets, along with increased bank deposits and earnings.
By segment, universal and commercial banks saw their assets increase 7.2 percent from P25.1 trillion a year earlier to P26.9 trillion in September.
Thrift banks recorded asset growth of 23.25 percent to P1.32 trillion from P1.07 trillion in the previous year.
Total assets of digital banks reached P142.54 billion as of end-September, a 32.43-percent increase from P107.64 billion in September 2024.
The BSP has yet to update its third-quarter asset data for rural and cooperative banks, which stood at P385.45 billion in June.
“For the coming months, continued growth in the local economy, still among the fastest in Asia, as well as possible future Federal Reserve and BSP rate cuts would continue to sustain relatively faster growth in banks’ total assets, as supported by the sustained growth in loans, deposits, earnings and investments,” Ricafort said.
