BPI Globe Savings lends P26 million to microborrowers

MANILA, Philippines - BPI Globe Savings Bank (BanKO) has lent out P26 million to microborrowers after it raised the amount from pledges last November.

BanKO is a thrift bank that focuses on lending to microentrepreneurs, using mobile banking technology instead of branches. It is a joint venture between the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Globe Telecom and Ayala Corp.

Last Nov.9, BanKO was able to raise over P26 million in the form of pledges from companies allied with the Ayala Group of Companies.

The pledges would earn 4.5 percent in the form of so-called a systemic savings with a holding period of six months. Pledges that fall under the classification of special savings deposits would earn three percent. Standard savings interest rates are slightly over one percent.

“While we have already lent out most of the amount, but have also received new pledges,” Teresita B. Tan, BanKO president, told The STAR. Tan is also the executive vice president of BPI.

The amount raised was lent to microfinance institutions (MFIs) as wholesale loans, which in turn were re-lent to microentrepreneurs. MFIs are entities dealing in microfinance such as non-government organizations (NGOs), cooperatives, and rural banks.

“It does not only offer high yields but it also has a strong social impact,” Tan added.

No less than Ayala Corp. chairman and chief executive officer Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala led BanKO officials to entice subsidiaries and employees to invest in the mobile banking microfinance-oriented thrift bank to raise additional cash for relending to microentrepreneurs.

“Microfinance through BanKO has excited us for its social dimension,” Zobel de Ayala said during the pledging session last month.

Meanwhile, Tan said that their target for the immediate future is to open a total of 17 branches, which will actually serve as regional and training centers, and not bank branches.

Another 32 physical outlets will be established within 2011, which includes the first five branches located in Naga, Lucena, Dumaguete, Tacloban and Dipolog.

BanKO was established in late 2009 with an authorized capital of P500 million and a loan portfolio of P1 billion.

It is the country’s first thrift bank that claims to rely solely on mobile technology to do its banking chores.