Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) have revealed that 8 out of 10 Filipinos do not have a bank account.
The 2014 Consumer Finance stated that 86 per cent of households don’t keep money in banks, ABS-CBN News reported. The study is conducted every four years.
Owning a bank account is a minimum requirement for access to formal credit lines that comply with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas regulations.
Surrendering ATM cards or “sangla ATM” is the most popular collateral for loans, used by 39.9 percent of borrowers, followed by land (22.5 percent), appliances (11.7 percent), vehicles (7.7 percent) and harvest (6.0 percent), according to the survey.
“Not having enough money” was the top reason for not keeping a bank account, cited by 92.3 percent in the 2014 survey, from 92.8 percent in 2009, data showed.
Other reasons cited include seeing no need for a bank account, living far from a bank, being unable to manage an account, and refusal to pay transaction charges.
The 2014 CFS covered 18,000 households nationwide, excluding Leyte, which was hit by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) in 2013.
