Friday, March 30, 2007 UCPB earmarks P900M for SMEs in VisMin
THE United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) is stepping up its credit operations in the Visayas and Mindanao and is allocating P900 million for lending to small and medium-sized enterprises in the two regions this year.
This is to spur export-oriented activities, local commerce and agricultural production, and generate employment opportunities there.
Davao City-based UCPB vice president Angelito Estanislao, who heads the bank's middle market lending operations in the Visayas and Mindanao, said the bank will focus on providing working capital and trade-related financing to small and medium-sized export firms, intermediate goods producers, traders and distributors of commodities, rural banks engaged micro-finance, and farmers' cooperatives providing production credit to their members.
"These are the businesses that are labor-intensive and have numerous village-based suppliers; their expansion will generate the most number of new jobs at the grass roots level and drive consumption, thus creating a huge multiplier effect on the regions' local economies," Estanislao said.
The funds earmarked for the Visayas and Mindanao represent nearly half of the P1.9 billion that UCPB has set aside for middle market loans this year, he added.
UCPB will channel the loans through its regional offices and branch network. The bank has two regional offices in these regions and 38 branches: 21 in the Visayas and 17 in Mindanao.
Estanislao said UCPB is directing its focus towards the middle market segment because it is huge and growing but remains underserved, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Last year, he said, the bank beefed up its middle market unit, doubling the number of relationship managers assigned to service the segment, and organizing them into four dedicated teams, one of which is devoted to cover the Visayas-Mindanao markets.
UCPB middle market portfolio grew to P3.7 billion in 2006 from P3.0 billion a year ago, and the bank is eyeing to expand this further P5.6 billion this year.
"Our stepped up operation in the Visayas and Mindanao will be a key driver of the growth this year," Estanislao said.
UCPB has a strong presence in the Visayas and Mindanao. Apart from its regional offices and branches, the bank has a subsidiary, UCPB Savings Bank, which has 15 of its 33 branches in the two regions.
It also has an affiliate, the UCPB-CIIF Finance Development Corporation, which is doing development lending to small coconut farmers and has tie-ups with 119 rural banks and 684 cooperative banks and credit cooperatives.
