loans guaranteed by select government institutions ; ( vii ) and allowed reclassification of debt securities to reduce the impact of mark - to - market losses ; ( viii ) allowed temporary exclusion of debt securities acquired from market making activities from the single borrower ’ s limit ( sbl ). let me stress that going into the crisis, the philippine banking sector has been strong and stable. now, with the regulatory measures put in place, we intend to maintain the banking sector ’ s strength amid the crisis. as of march 2020, the capital adequacy ratio ( car ) of the country ’ s universal and commercial banks stood at 15. 3 percent on a solo basis. 3 / 13 bis central bankers'speeches this is higher than the bsp ’ s minimum requirement of 10 percent and the bank for international settlement ’ s prescribed 8 percent. as of march 2020, their liquidity coverage ratio was at 171 percent, higher than the regulatory requirement of at least 100 percent. their assets continue to grow, rising to p17. 2 trillion in june 2020 from p15. 8 trillion in the same period last year. the banking system ’ s gross total loan portfolio ( tlp ) rose by 7. 3 percent year on year to p9. 9 trillion as of end - june 2020, slower than the 10. 5 percent growth rate in june 2019. the quality of the universal and commercial banks ’ loan portfolio remained satisfactory. the nonperforming loan ( npl ) ratio stood low at 2. 1 percent as of end - june 2020, slightly higher than the 1. 6 percent ratio as of end - june 2019. meantime, the crisis has led to concerns that banks may suffer from a sharp rise in nonperforming loans. but based on our assessment, this will not be the case. we expect any increase in npls to be modest. a bsp survey conducted in april among top 20 universal and commercial banks, top 20 thrift banks, and top 20 rural and cooperative banks showed that, on average, these banks expect their npls to increase from 2. 4 percent last march to 4. 6 percent to december 2020. this likely increase is manageable. we have implemented numerous relief measures. and more are being considered. in particular, we are looking at additional regulatory enhancements that will enable our regulated entities to focus their resources on addressing the impact of the pandemic on their operations and the financial consumers. we will announce the additional relief measures once finalized.

on top of this, we also have a very active private sector that is carrying out various altruistic initiatives to alleviate the plight of affected filipinos. on the part of the bsp, we coordinate well with the national government in addressing the needs of the country in saving lives and livelihoods, even as we continue to strictly observe our independence. we have maintained pro - active relations with regional forums as well as with multilateral institutions. together with other central banks, we pursue mutual objectives and initiatives that, in general, contribute to economic growth and financial stability. the pandemic has provided us with an opportunity to widen our engagement and intensify our policy dialogues. the dialogues zeroed in on economic developments amid the pandemic, the policy responses, availability of financing assistance and other means of support, and the way forward in the new economy. 7 / 13 bis central bankers'speeches two important lessons from these discussions. first, the pandemic has adversely impacted the global economy, though the impact is uneven. second, while many central banks responded quickly by providing liquidity, other equally important measures, such as fiscal and social, are needed to cushion the impact of the crisis. through our participation in international fora, the bsp may learn from our peers. in turn, they may also learn from us. on a regional level, the philippines, through the bsp, continues to be an active member of various initiatives that provide member - countries with support in case of balance of payments difficulty. for instance : under the chiang mai initiative multilateralization ( cmim ), the philippines has committed us $ 9. 104 billion. as a contributor to this facility, the philippines will ( 1 ) be able to provide liquidity assistance to another member experiencing liquidity difficulty ; and ( 2 ) as a recipient, the philippines may be able to borrow up to us $ 22. 76 billion to help avert an impending or actual balance of payment problem. under the asean swap agreement — for which the philippines recently renewed its participation for another two years up to november 2021 — the country ’ s commitment is us $ 300 million, which allows us to draw up to an equivalent of us $ 600 million when the need arises. also, the bsp has a bilateral swap agreement with the bank of japan. the agreement enables the philippines to swap its local currency against japanese yen in addition to us dollars with the facility size of up to us $ 12 billion equivalent for the philippines and us