As countries around the world struggle to emerge from the economic downturn, the Philippines remains relatively unscathed, having learnt the lessons from previous crises. Banks in the country are seeing high growth and low interest rates, and are well poised to take on foreign competition.
“At the moment I am quite optimistic,” says Eduardo Olbes, head of Security Bank’s corporate and investment segment. “As a country we have never seen interest rates this low – a reflection of the amount of domestic liquidity. Generally, business confidence is quite high and companies are able to turn a profit and grow their business,” he says. He adds that this is a continuation of the positive results that the country’s banking sector saw in 2010 and 2011. “The Philippines’ banks came out of the crisis in 2008/09 unscathed,” says Mr Olbes.
