Chinatrust eyes P4.4-B personal loan portfolio

Chinatrust (Philippines) Commercial Bank Corp. (Chinatrust) expects to book P4.4 billion in new loans for 2006 alone. This is more than its cumulative loan bookings for the past four years since it started the business in 2002.

Chinatrust president Joey A. Bermudez cited huge investment made on infrastructure and manpower to deliver the personal loan product to the customer in seamless fashion. Information technology investments alone for the past three years reached P100 million.

"We constantly challenge our existing processes, from the time applications are received from the customer to the time they are evaluated, approved, disbursed and collected, and we do not hesitate to invest in the necessary infrastructure to support our requirements," Bermudez said.

Personal loans are offered under the Salary Stretch brand. It contributes 26 percent of gross revenues despite representing only 19 percent of its total loan portfolio.

Chinatrust has successfully managed to run a stable, low-default and high-yield operation by putting the collective experience of its consumer finance team to good use, and creating a risk management infrastructure that addresses credit and operational risks.

Including its personal loan portfolio, it reported a mere 3.02-percent non-performing loans (NPL) ratio end 2005, better than the commercial banking industry’s 8.51 percent.

The bank just recently launched a promo that rewards borrowers with free hotel accommodation or food and beverage gift certificate, depending on the loan amount.