Most banks in the Philippines plan to keep their lending standards unchanged in the second quarter of 2026, suggesting continued credit support for the economy despite global uncertainty caused by the Middle East conflict.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Senior Bank Loan Officers’ Survey (SLOS), the majority of banks expect to apply the same criteria for evaluating loan applications for both businesses and households.
For business loans, 61.5 percent of banks anticipate no change in their lending standards, while 30.8 percent expect to tighten them and 7.7 percent expect to ease them. This is a slight shift from the previous quarter, where 71.2 percent expected to maintain their standards.
For household loans, 65.7 percent of banks expect to keep their standards steady, with 28.6 percent expecting to tighten and 5.7 percent expecting to ease. This marks a small decline from Q1 2026, where 77.8 percent expected no change.
Banks were also asked about loan demand expectations for Q2 2026. Results show that most banks (53.8 percent) expect business loan demand to stay the same, while 34.6 percent expect it to rise, and 11.5 percent expect it to fall. For household loans, 52.9 percent expect demand to remain unchanged, with 23.5 percent expecting an increase or decrease.
Overall, the outlook for both business and household loan demand is stable, with a slight increase expected for business loans, according to the diffusion index method.
