BPI Family Bank to offer loans to microenterprises
Posted on March 6th, 2010
The thrift bank subsidiary of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, BPI Family Savings Bank, is going to roll out a credit facility that will cater to the micro and small enterprises. This plan of BPI Family to increase its loan exposure will be done through a customized business packaged which it will roll out in partnership with Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, the proponent of the Go Negosyo campaign.
This is part of the BPI Family to break into the broader market, with the hope that eventually, it will be able to generate half of its business from lending to the small and medium enterprise (SME) and consumer sectors.
Its mother company, the BPI, has about P130 billion or 39 percent of its total loan portfolio devoted to these sectors at present, according to BPI president Aurelio Montinola III.
For its thrift bank’s program, which is called the BI Family Ka-Negosyo business program, the bank will offer a comprehensive line of loan products and services which are all anchored on business loans customized according to the client’s financing requirement and budget.
Jose Ma. Concepcion III, funding trustee of Go Negosyo, said that his organization will be helping in hooking up BPI Family with potential borrowers through its seminars and caravans.
For his part, BPI Family Bank president Alfonso Salcedo Jr., said that under the program, the bank would be looking at micro and small enterprises with a good track record and in need of at least P500,000 and up to P10 million in funds for its expansion.
The terms of the loan would be typically be three-to-five years with an annual interest of between 9 and 12 percent. But this will all depend on the loan size and collateral, said Salcedo. For the sake of classification, the BPI group defines a microenterprise as a company with assets of less than P3 million.
