Financial Crisis in the Philippines

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Introduction

In the 1990s, The Philippine Financial system was composed of banking institutions and non-bank financial intermediaries such as banks, specialized government banks, thrift banks, rural banks, offshore banking units, building and loan associations, investment and brokerage houses, and finance companies. The Central Bank and the Securities Exchange Commission maintained regulatory and controlled the financial system. At this time, the Philippines had a relatively complex financial system, yet the level of intermediation was low in comparison to the size of the economy. It was during the late 1970s and early 1980s when they first started implementing policies in order to strengthen the system, but financial crises occurred between the years 1981 to 1983 which had caused for the proposed policies to not take effect. In the year 1986, the financial community has undertaken recovery efforts. Philippine National bank, a government owned commercial bank, was the largest among all commercial banks in the Philippines. It was created for the purpose of providing agricultural credit for exports crops. Philippine National bank accounted for 25 percent to 30 percent of commercial bank assets in between the years 1970 to 1980 and the accumulation of non-performing assets in the year 1987, led for the Philippine National Bank’s asset share to fall by half of its size. Moreover, the economic crisis that happened in the mid 1980s also contributed for the Philippine National Bank to decrease its asset share into half. The following year, there were about twenty privately owned domestic banks and four branches of foreign banks engaged in commercial banking.

In the year 1991, The Philippine Government managed three special banks: The Development bank of the Philippines, The Land Bank of the Philippines and the Philippine Amanah Bank. The Development bank was established in order to facilitate post war rehabilitations and also to provide long-term finance. On the other hand, The Land bank of the Philippines was designed in the early 1970s, in order to fund the government and the reform program. Lastly, Philippine Amanah Bank was founded in the mid 1970s, which catered the Muslim community in the southern part of the Philippines. It was also this time wherein a few of the domestic banks in the Philippines were permitted to take foreign currency deposits and engage in foreign-currency lending.

Moreover, economic and political crises have also affected the financial system, specifically during the year ________ when Benigno Aquino was assassinated. This occurrence resulted to the downfall of the banking industry, which affected predominantly the smaller institutions.

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