Manila, the Philippines, November 6, 2014
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has approved a medium-term loan of up to $30 million (126 million Philippine pesos) to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. to increase its financing of small and medium enterprises, including women-led businesses. This will help spur job creation and support smaller businesses affected by Typhoon Yolanda.
As the country’s sixth-largest private domestic bank, RCBC has a large pool of smaller businesses that need trade and working capital financing. These enterprises, which comprise nearly 10 percent of all registered businesses in the country, account for 30 percent of total employment and about 30 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product.
“We commend IFC’s endeavors to support SMEs in the country. We consider this market segment instrumental to RCBC’s lending growth and will continue to be a key focus area for the bank,” said RCBC President and Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Tan.
IFC’s Advisory Services team is engaged with the bank’s Women in Business Program to boost lending to women entrepreneurs. Up to 70 percent of all registered small and medium enterprises in the Philippines are owned by women, but they often face a bigger credit gap than their male competitors. IFC is also advising Rizal Microbank, a thrift-bank subsidiary of RCBC, to improve access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises in Mindanao and Southern Luzon.
“With 80 percent of micro, small and medium enterprises in the Philippines not having access to credit or the collateral to borrow from a bank, IFC’s loan is designed to help provide financing to these businesses, promote job creation and diversify the country’s economic base,” said IFC Resident Representative Jesse Ang.
IFC and the IFC Capitalization Fund have a total ownership stake of 11.34 percent in the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. through investments disbursed in March 2011 and May 2013.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in about 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. In FY14, we provided more than $22 billion in financing to improve lives in developing countries and tackle the most urgent challenges of development. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
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