By LEE C. CHIPONGIAN
January 2, 2012, 4:01am
MANILA, Philippines — The Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas (BSP) has approved a new microfinance loan called
"microfinance plus" that microenterprises and small businesses can avail
of to fund their expanding operations.
The BSP issued Circular No. 744, which was approved last December 28 and
signed by BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr., amended Circular No. 694
to include the microfinance plus in the list of microfinance loan
categories.
Under revised rules but similar to other microfinance loan products, a
borrower can take out a maximum of P300,000 to fund his growing
business. This is technically a second loan for borrowers that could
show sustained capacity to pay.
Circular No. 744 states, "the borrowers that will qualify will have a
track record of at least two microfinance loan cycles in the P50,000 to
P150,000 range demonstrating the success of the business, its increasing
credit demand and subsequent increased capacity to pay."
Microfinance, generally, has originally intended to mean financing for
microenterprises or small livelihood activities but the BSP has since
expanded the loan products to include microfinance housing, micro-agri
loans, micro-insurance and micro-deposits.
For all loans, it starts with P150,000 up to a maximum of P300,000.
Currently, there are 202 microfinance institutions operating in the
Philippines.
By the end of the third quarter this year, microfinance loans have
increased to P7.3 billion from end-December's total of P6.5 billion.
Tetangco in a previous interview said they continue to enhance policies
to promote, grow and increase microfinance business in the country,
which was one of the most important pro-poor mandates of the General
Banking Law of 2000.
He said the banking system is much more inclusive today with almost
979,353 microfinance borrowers with loans amounting to P7.53 billion.
This was higher than end-2010's 932,622 borrowers.
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