MANILA, Philippines?About half a trillion pesos ($10.7 billion) 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 Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) deputy governor for supervision and examination, is equivalent to nearly a quarter of the Philippines banking systems' loan portfolio, the report said.

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

The Metro 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 BSP is considering a proposal that will allow banks to stagger over five years the booking of loan losses from ?Ondoy? and ?Pepeng?, 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.