TOTAL deposits in the Philippine banking system continued to grow, reaching P16.2 trillion in 2021, nine percent higher than the P14.9 trillion recorded a year ago, as the economy started to recover from the impact of the pandemic.The expansion was driven primarily by deposits with balances of above P5 million in terms of size of the account and non-term deposits in terms of the type of deposits.Meanwhile, the number of domestic deposit accounts grew by 8.8 percent to 87.1 million in 2021 from 80.1 million accounts registered in 2020.Deposits with balances of P5,000 and below, and savings deposits mostly accounted for the increase in the number of domestic deposit accounts.Deposits with balances of above P5 million contributed 85.2 percent or P1.1 trillion to the annual expansion of domestic deposits. By type of deposits, demand and savings posted annual increases at 17.6 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively. These two deposit types accounted for the entire growth in domestic deposits.Long-term negotiable certificates of deposit and time deposits, however, contracted by 5.9 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, exerting downward pressure on the overall domestic deposit growth.“While the pandemic may have been an unpleasant wake-up call for many Filipinos, it has highlighted the importance of saving for the future and emergencies. With more banks offering basic deposit accounts, saving money in banks becomes much easier and practical,” said PDIC president Roberto Tan.Given the growth in domestic deposits, insurance up to the maximum deposit insurance coverage of P500,000 per depositor per bank expanded by three percent in 2021 from a year ago to P3.2 trillion, representing 19.5 percent of the total domestic deposits.The deposit insurance system fully covered 96.8 percent or 84.3 million of domestic deposit accounts, higher by 8.9 percent from the 77.4 million fully covered domestic deposit accounts in 2020.As of Dec. 31, 2021, the Philippine banking system had 506 banks, comprising 413 rural banks, 47 thrift banks, and 46 commercial banks, including 24 branches of foreign banks. Banks licensed to operate in the Philippines by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are members of the PDIC. (PR)