Planters Dev't Bank to put up 10 branches

Manila, Philippines - Planters Development Bank (Plantersbank) is putting up 10 branches this year to strengthen its foothold in providing banking needs for the small and medium enterprise (SME) market.

Bobby Banaag, Plantersbank first vice president for corporate communications and OIC for SME Center for Asia Environment Center, told reporters at the sideline of the 9th Annual Meeting of the APEC Financial Institutions Dealing with Small and Medium Enterprise (APEC SME) hosted by Plantersbank, that their network expansion is now dependent on the requirement of SMEs particularly those based in the countryside.

Recently, he said, Plantersbank opened branches in Makati and Mandaluyong. The bank is expected to put up eight more branches in different areas in the country including Bacolod, Isabela, Naga and Manila. To date, Plantersbank maintains 72 branches.

Plantersbank, Banaag said, does not have a particular growth rate in terms of network expansion. “It depends on the need of the market,” he added.

As the host of the first APEC SME meet in the Philippines, Banaag said Plantersbank hopes to get inputs from other member-economies on the best practices in SME banking. Plantersbank is the only Philippine bank member in the APEC SME since 2006.

Banaag said the meeting, aside from forging greater ties among members, is aimed at coming up with programs that would meet the continuing changes in banking practices especially amidst the US and Europe financial crises.

Moreso, he said the member-economies are trying to enhance the culture of “going green” in the financial market.

“We want to bring and have an environmental angle by encouraging SMEs to go green. We are also trying to come up with financial programs related to renewable energy (RE),” he said.

Plantersbank, he said, has started to offer financial packages to SMEs that intend to engage in green technology such as those projects related waste management and recycling.

Small enterprises are those with capital of between P3 million to P15 million while medium ones have a capitalization of P15 million to P100 million.

“This is part of our new approach to improve our banking services to our customers. Before we only have two approaches which are ‘profit and people’ now we include ‘planet’ that involve green programs,” he said.