Banks maintain credit standards

MOST banks either maintained or tightened credit standards for business and household loans during the first quarter of the year depending on how data from a survey of loan officers is analyzed, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Friday.

Based on a modal approach, where results are analyzed by looking at the option with the highest share of responses, majority of participating banks maintained credit standards. But using the diffusion index (DI) method, there was a net tightening of standards as more banks said that standards had become stringent compared to those who replied otherwise.