The Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) program will be launching a major event marking its 10th year in servicing the Philippine rural banking community and microentrepreneurs.
Dubbed “Rural Banks and Microfinance — A Winning Combination: Celebrating 10 Years of Success of the MABS Program and Microfinance Efforts of Rural Banks,” will take place on June 12 and 13 at the Manila Hotel.
The event highlight the success of rural banks engaged in microfinance, particularly successful MABS participating rural banks which have disbursed some one million microfinance loans totaling over P13 billion to more than 365,000 borrowers over the past 10 years.
The event will cap the national roundtable meeting to be hosted by the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines-Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (RBAP-MABS) program.
The roundtable meeting will feature various presentations including experiences of rural banks which are now utilizing the MABS-designed mobile phone banking applications; a presentation from the MIX Market and Valiant Bank on the topic of reporting transparency; presentations by industry leaders on factors and trends in microfinance in the Philippines; and presentations on marketing and disaster preparedness.
Top performing rural banks will also share their experiences in expanding microfinance services.
On the evening of June 12th, MABS will also hold its National EAGLE Awards Ceremony where the top performing MABS participating rural banks will be recognized based on their performance using the MABS EAGLE standards.