Guarantee institution opens direct lending program for exporters

In response to the clamor by exporters for wider access to funds, the Trade and Investment Development Corp. of the Philippines (Tidcorp) has started to implement a medium-and-long-term (MLT) direct lending program exclusively for exporters.

The new credit window makes available to small, medium and large direct and indirect exporters medium- and long-term loans amounting up to P40 million. Exporters may use the fund for purchase of machinery or equipment, acquisition or construction of plant or building, permanent working capital, and acquisition of land to be used as project site.

Medium-term loans are payable up to five years with long-term extending to 10. The rates will be based on the existing Tidcorp lending rate subject to periodic re-pricing. For this facility, the guarantee institutions charges 1/8 percent non-refundable processing fee of the approved loan or P1,000 whichever is higher. Collaterals admitted for the program include lien on project assets to be acquired, real estate, chattels, marketable securities or instruments acceptable to Tidcorp, export credit insurance coverage, joint and several signatures (JSS) of company principals, assignment of export proceeds, and other acceptable collateral.

Those who can apply for the MLT must be in the business of processing, production, manufacturing and marketing or trading of products or rendering of services for at least two years. The absence of substantial derogatory credit record and sound financial standing are also important considerations.

The MLT is the second direct lending program offered by Tidcorp. The first, which was a short-term lending program, was launched in December 1998 as a stop-gap measure to the prevailing tight lending policy of private banks. This follow-up-up program is deemed to cushion effects of globalization on exporters and help them attain world-class production standards through availability of funds to modernize their production techniques. – Philexport News & Features