BSP Mandates Submission of Foreign Borrowing Plans

PHILIPPINE ENTITIES planning to contract foreign loans in the fourth quarter and 2027 must submit their borrowing plans by Sept. 30, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said. In a statement on Tuesday, the central bank said resident entities from the public and private sectors that want to take out medium- and long-term foreign loans from nonresidents are required to submit their plans to the BSP. These include offshore debt issues as well as onshore debt instruments payable in foreign currency. “The requirement, which is provided under the amended Manual of Regulations on Foreign Exchange Transactions (FX Manual), enables the BSP to determine the economy’s foreign funding requirements for the coming year,” the central bank said. “This is in line with the central bank’s mandate to regulate foreign borrowing or foreign currency loans so that these can be serviced in an orderly manner and aligned to the economy’s debt servicing capacity,” it added. The BSP noted that foreign borrowing plans may be submitted to the BSP’s International Operations Department via e-mail or an online form posted on the central bank’s website. It said it will treat all data obtained from the borrowing plans confidentially and used only internal purposes. In the third quarter of 2025, the Monetary Board approved $1.1 billion of the proposed public sector foreign borrowings with medium- to long-term maturities, down 71.13% from a year earlier. The Monetary Board is tasked with handling approvals of all foreign borrowing proposals by the National Government, government agencies, and government financial institutions. It also oversees loans to be guaranteed by the National Government. The Philippines’ foreign debt stock slipped 0.2% year on year to $147.351 billion in the first quarter. — Katherine K. Chan