Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said they are reviewing the imposition of a ceiling to a bank’s access to the BSP’s P60-billion rediscounting facility.

It was earlier reported that BSP is considering capping banks access to the liquidity window to allow other banks, especially mid-size banks, to avail of the facility.

The central bank already has placed a restriction on rediscounted loans using outstanding National Food Authority (NFA) papers to lessen BSP’s exposure to the problematic government agency. Presently there is a P3-billion limit imposed on any banks availing of the rediscounting facility on NFA loans.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo, in the meantime, said there are no immediate plans of increasing the budget for rediscounting at this point since there is enough liquidity in the market and the BSP has “done enough” in ensuring money supply by easing policy stance.

“At this point, it is best to be more careful and more circumspect at further easing monetary policy without looking first at emerging real sector developments,” said Guinigundo, when asked of the possibility of increasing rediscounting facility. “We may have to reverse course and maybe pause at some point, and start tightening our monetary policy once strong sighs of (economic) recovery are more apparent.”

Last year, the BSP adopted two measures to release P100 billion in the financial system. This is when they reduced banks reserve requirement by two percent and by adjusting rediscounting facility higher.

As of June 30 the facility totaled P87.668 billion. About 61.8 percent went to commercial credits, three percent to agricultural and industrial credits, and 35.2 percent to other credits consisting of other services, capital expenditures, permanent working capital, housing and microfinance.

Last March, the BSP liberalized its rediscounting facility to allow banks easier access to credit and liquidity from the central bank.

The BSP raised the loan value of all eligible rediscounting papers from 80 percent to 90 percent of the outstanding balance of a borrowing bank’s credit instrument, but not to exceed 70 percent of the appraised value of the underlying collateral.

BSP also revised the rediscounting requirements by adjusting the ceiling of the non-performing loan ratio requirement to 10 percentage points above the latest available industry average from the current ceiling of two percentage points above the industry average.