Banks’ trust assets rise at end-June

The Philippine banking industry’s trust and other fiduciary businesses rose by 10% year on year to PHP 4.06 trillion as of end-June, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

This was higher than the PHP 3.66 trillion in the same period in 2022 and 2.7% above the PHP 3.95 trillion in the previous quarter.

A trust business refers to any activity from a trustor-trustee relationship wherein a trustee is appointed by a trustor to administer, hold, and manage their funds and/or properties to the benefit of the trustor.

Banks or nonbank institutions such as investment houses can be designated to have a business unit to perform trust functions.

The trust industry’s assets include investments in securities and bank deposits.

BSP data showed cash and due from banks climbed by 38.7% to PHP 469 million in the first half of the year from PHP 338 million in the comparable year-ago period.

Total deposits in banks grew by 44.2% to  PHP 1.07 trillion in the first semester from PHP 742.6 billion last year.

Meanwhile, net financial assets slipped by 0.4% to PHP 2.41 trillion as of end-June from PHP 2.42 billion a year earlier.

Total loans, which includes gross equity investments, also dipped by 0.13% to PHP 76.69 billion from PHP 76.79 billion in 2022.

Under total accountabilities, trusts holdings stood at PHP 1.43 trillion in the first half, 13.3% lower than the PHP 1.65 trillion a year ago.

Broken down, unit investment trust funds fell by 41.2% to PHP 495.24 billion in the January-to-June period from PHP 841.72 billion last year.

Employee benefits went up by 11.7% to PHP 353.03 billion year on year, while pre-need rose by 8% to P91.81 billion.

Agency trusts under total accountabilities climbed by 33.7% to PHP 2.02 trillion from PHP 1.51 trillion while other fiduciary services rose by 12.9% to P610.81 billion from PHP 540.74 billion a year prior.

The universal and commercial banks managed PHP 4.036 trillion of these trust holdings while thrift banks held PHP 27.62 billion. — K.B. Ta-asan