Philippine banks added 395 offices and branches last year to reach more customers, data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed Monday.
The number of banking offices increased 4 percent to 10,756 in 2015 from 10,361 in 2014, as the industry-wide expansion continued to widen its reach nationwide.
Data showed universal and commercial banks or UKBs accounted for 6,060 branches last year, up from 5,833 a year ago. There were 40 head offices of UKBs with 6,020 branches or other offices.
Branches of thrift or savings banks also increased to 2,086 from 1,920 in 2014. Rural and cooperative banks expanded to 2,610 branches from 2,608 a year ago.
The number of financial institutions supervised or regulated by Bangko Sentral reached 28,374 in 2015, up from 28,135 institutions in 2014.
Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. earlier said the domestic banking system remained robust, supported by strong balance sheets and capital adequacy ratios which were above the prescribed standards.
Tetangco said banks continued to provide necessary funding for productive sectors of the economy. The average loan growth of the banking sector ranged from 13 to 14 percent.
Universal and commercial banks remained well capitalized as of the third quarter of 2015. Data showed the capital adequacy ratio of universal and commercial banks—a measurement of financial strength—hit 15.55 percent on solo basis and 16.4 percent on consolidated basis as of end-September 2015.
These figures were above the BSP regulatory threshold of 10 percent and minimum international standard of 8 percent.
The banks’ latest CAR on solo basis rose quarter-on-quarter from the 15.48 percent posted as end-June last year.