Capital adequacy ratios (CARs) of the banking system remained enough as they continued to exceed the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) minimum requirement of 10 percent and the Basel Accord’s standard ratio of 8 percent.

As of end-September last year, the banking system’s CARs were at 14.82 percent on solo basis and 15.76 percent on consolidated basis, both of which were slightly higher than the comparable June 2009 ratios.

Likewise, at end-September Tier 1 capital ratios of the banking system remained significantly higher than the BSP’s required 6 percent minimum ratio as they stood at 12.22 percent and 12.36 percent on solo and consolidated bases, respectively.

The slight improvement in the banking system’s CARs was due to the almost matching growth rate of qualifying capital and risk weighted assets (RWA).

With several banks issuing T1 capital notes and some of them posting an increase in net profits, the qualifying capital position of the banking system at end-September posted 0.84 percent to P5.0 billion) and 1.06 percent to P7.0 billion quarter-on-quarter growths, on solo and consolidated bases, respectively.

The RWA, on the other hand, expanded by 0.73 percent to P29.4 billion on solo basis, and by 0.56 percent to P23.4 billion on consolidated basis as compared to that in the previous quarter.

Universal and commercial banking sector’s CAR of 14.94 percent on solo basis went down by 0.04 percentage point as compared with its previous quarter. (CSL)