MANILA, Philippines - The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is providing more economic opportunities for women through its various developmental lending activities.
The government financial institution introduced recently an enhanced lending program for micro, small and medium enterprises. The initiative was in recognition of the entrepreneurial skills of women a well as their reliability in paying debts.
Global and local experience by microfinance institutions (MFI) has reportedly registered in general a repayment level of 96 percent from women microborrowers.
DBP chairman Patricia A. Sto. Tomas said the greatest field of economic participation for women is in micro and small enterprises.
“Thus we try to keep a robust lending portfolio for wholesale lending and microfinance programs,” Sto. Tomas said.
DBP recently adopted a new set of lending guidelines specifically tailored to enhance assistance to micro and small businesses. The guidelines simplify documentary and collateral requirements to substantially reduce credit processing time to 12 working days upon submission of complete documents.
Sto. Tomas said DBP does not only aspire to influence the flow of financial resources for entrepreneurial activities but also further empower women “towards economic independence.”
Likewise, DBP introduced loan facilities for improved health care in the hope that it would assist the establishment and upgrading of hospitals and lying-in clinics in the rural and urban poor communities, and consequently reduce infant mortality and maternal deaths.
Meanwhile, DBP assured the public that its automated teller machines (ATM) network would be fully operational during the Holy Week.
Its ATM service teams are ready to ensure that its ATM network would provide uninterrupted service, particularly on Maundy Thursday (April 1) up to Easter Sunday (April 4).
The DBP ATM network monitoring team will also be on 24-hour regular duty during the long break.
Selected branches will be open on Black Saturday, April 3, to service deposit and withdrawal transactions. These are the DBP branch offices located in Baguio, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Commonwealth, Quezon City.
While the rest of the DBP branches nationwide will be closed during the Holy Week, bank clients may, however, contact the following hotlines for ATM-related concerns: (02) 812-6378; 818-9511 locals 2133 and 2166;0917-8328557; 0917-8328623; and domestic toll free number 1-800-103278888 for inquiring DBP cardholders.