Plantersbank dedicates funds solely for SMEs

CEBU, Philippines – As more commercial banks begin to serve the financial needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a thrift bank that has been dedicating its resources solely to SMEs remains confident that it will still be the sector's preferred bank.

Planters Development Bank (Plantersbank) SBG (SME banking group) Visayas lending department head Sim dela Cruz said the Tambunting-controlled bank is not at all threatened with this move, as Plantersbank has long established itself as a bank for SMEs.

"(In terms of asset,) we (Plantersbank) are now bigger than other commercial banks in the country. We can easily upgrade to being a commercial bank but we choose to remain a thrift bank so that we will be able to continue to serve the SMEs (and the micro enterprises,)" he said on the sidelines of Plantersbank SME ethics in speaker series last Thursday at the City Sports Club Cebu.

Plantersbank, which is 60-percent owned by the Tambunting group of companies and 40-percent owned by foreign companies, has a total assets of more than P50 billion offering banking products, services and business solutions geared toward promoting SMEs.

De la Cruz added that while most commercial banks open a window for SME lending to comply with Republic Act 9501, otherwise known as Magna Carta for MSMEs, which mandates financial institutions, including banks, to allocate 10 percent of their credit resources to MSMEs-eight percent for micro and small enterprises and two per-cent for medium enterprises-for a period of 10 years, Plantersbank dedicates 100 percent of its financial resources to MSMEs.

Aside from addressing the financial concerns of its clients, Plantersbank goes out of the way by providing value-added services such as the speaker series to enhance the knowledge of their clients on business management and to boost their confidence level as well.

In this year's speaker series, which is now on its third year, Plantersbank brought to Cebu motivational speaker Anthony Pangilinan who talked about the importance of business values and how it can be a big factor in helping businesses achieve greater productivity and financial gains.

"In the previous years, we talked about how to manage a business during difficult times and how to thrive despite the tough times. Now that most businesses are already showing signs of recovery from the economic downturn, we thought it best to promote good governance and instill good business values among our entrepreneurs. We believe that if we can eliminate opportunities for corruption, our SMEs can benefit a lot because this could mean greater productivity and long-term financial gains," Ambassador Je-sus P. Tambunting, Plantersbank chairman and president said in a statement.

Plantersbank is the 19th largest bank out of the 38 commercial and universal banks and more than 800 thrift and rural banks in the country. It ranked within the top 250 com-panies. It has 80 branches nationwide. Its partners and shareholders include the World Bank's International Finance Corp, the Netherlands Development Finance Company and the Asian Development Bank. (FREEMAN)