Philippines

With most small businesses citing access to finance as one of their biggest challenges, most of those in Asia rely on banks to get the funding to scale up. According to estimates, there remains a huge financing gap for SMEs in the Philippines.
The Department of Trade and Industry places it at P180 billion, while PhilExport places it at P67 billion. Another firm, Nangia Vaillancourt, estimates it at P170 billion. For Dr. Mario Lamberte, project team leader of the USAID-Philippines Advancing Philippine Competitiveness (Compete) Project, the real gap is “grossly underestimated.”

This presentation goes over the following points:

• Saving products to suit the needs of the poor
• Loan products that are exclusively designed to respond to the needs of the poor women clients

This presentation goes over the following points:

MSMEs in the Philippines
Challenges Faced by MSMEs
Access to Finance Challenge
BSP Initiatives for MSME Development
Policy and Regulatory Approach
Microfinance
Targeted Incentives
Internal Capacity Building
Advocacy for Credit Surety
Monitoring of MSME Mandatory Credit
Moving Forward to Financial Inclusion

For this SME based in the Philippines -  which received help from Planters Development Bank - the 3 following points are key to any SME success:

Plantersbank has 40 years of experience in development banking and marketing financial services to SMEs in the Philippines. We stayed competitive because of our ability to understand and be flexible to the SMEs needs. This meant that we had to offer, both informally and formally, advisory services that were both financial and non-financial.

Philippine Payments and Settlements System is the real time gross settlement system owned and operated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). It is otherwise known as PhilPaSS.

The McKinsey & Company report “Mobile money for the unbanked” draws attention to the proliferation of mobile phones across the world and examines the considerable potential of mobile banking. “Mobile money for the unbanked” studies the Philippines as an example of how mobile banking can provide financial services to large unbanked populations. The report suggests ways mobile network providers, banks, and policy-makers can cooperate to make mobile banking ubiquitous in developing countries.

BDO is a full-service universal bank in the Philippines. It has the ability to provide a complete array of industry-leading products and services including Lending (corporate, middle market, SME, and consumer), Deposit-taking, Foreign Exchange, Brokering, Trust and Investments, Credit Cards, Corporate Cash Management and Remittances in the Philippines. Through its subsidiaries, the Bank offers Leasing and Financing, Investment Banking, Private Banking, Bancassurance, Insurance Brokerage and Stock Brokerage services.

Benel Lagua, President & COO of the Small Business Corporation, talks about how they are expanding access to finance for SMEs in the Philippines through advocacy and lending.