Philippine banks' virus rebound to be faster than post-Asia crisis

MANILA, Jan 18 (Bloomberg): Philippine banks will recover faster from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic than they did from the Asian financial crisis due to record-low interest rates, higher capital and a stable economy, the head of the nation’s bankers group said.

Lenders in the South-East Asian nation may bounce back in three to four years, about half the time it took after the 1997 crisis as banks aggressively provision for probable losses, said Cezar Consing, president of the Bankers Association of the Philippines.