One bank stands out in the microfinance space in the Philippines, one that helped turn the lives of its micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) borrowers living ordinary lives into productive entrepreneurs and employers helping spread the benefits of economic expansion, according to the prestigious publication Asiamoney.
This relates to the rural lender Country Builders Bank (CBB) which started its journey into prominence as a nine-branch operation as First Macro Bank in Rizal province where it extended micro loans, essentially clean or non-collateralized loans, to small entrepreneurs. CBB took off from the merger of Country Builders Bank and Country Rural Bank of Taguig in 2012, making it the country’s largest rural lender.
Astute management and dedication to the needs of its clients allowed the lender to purloin its niche operations into a 33-branch operation with a staff of only 363 that now encompass Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and Rizal.
“The bank’s success in accelerating and deepening financial inclusion in rural provinces, far away from urban areas, earns Country’ Builders Bank a special mention as the bank to watch in the Philippines in 2023,” Asiamoney said.
The publication noted the lender focused its activities on the weakest economic links in the Philippines, later explained by CBB president Mike Sandig as grounded on the fact that MSMEs accounted for 63 percent of employment in the country.
To ensure growth of its loan portfolio, Country Builders Bank takes pains boosting the financial education of its clients so that borrowers own the skills and the experience to grow eventually into mid-size or even large employers themselves.
The bank’s UNLAD Express microfinance loan program extending micro loans to low-income clients for their microenterprises and small businesses is considered a mainstay product, the prestigious publication said.
