Philippine banks' default risk from floods: report

About half a trillion pesos (10.7 billion dollars) in loans are at risk from defaults due to two tropical storms that ravaged the Philippines, Dow Jones Newswires quoted a central bank official as saying Friday.

The figure quoted by Nestor Espenilla, the central bank deputy governor for supervision and examination, is equivalent to nearly a quarter of the Philippines banking systems' loan portfolio, the report said.

Tropical Storm Ketsana killed 337 people as floods swamped 80 percent of Manila on September 26, while Typhoon Parma has so far killed more than 90 people and is currently devastating farming areas in the country's north.

The Manila region accounts for a third of the country's economic output.

Dow Jones quoted Espenilla as saying the central bank is considering other relief measures to help banks cope with the potential loan defaults in the affected areas.

Espenilla said the central bank is considering a proposal that will allow banks to stagger over five years the booking of loan losses from Ketsana and Parma, Dow Jones said.

Last week the central bank announced a raft of temporary relief measures for the banks as a result of the storm disasters.