Eastern Visayas tops LandBank performance

Thursday, May 19, 2011

EASTERN Visayas maintains a P10-billion deposit at the LandBank of the Philippines, doubling the P4.6-billion loan released by the bank last year, making the region a “fund provider” for financing in other areas of the country.

The region ranks first in terms of LandBank performance in the Visayas and third in the whole country.

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LandBank assistant vice president for Eastern Visayas Alex A. Lorayes said the government and the private sector have an equal share of the bank’s deposit portfolio.

“The P10-billion deposits have been recorded since December 2010 until April 2011. Considering that deposits are way up than the loan disbursement, that means we are sending funds to other regions for government-financing programs,” Lorayes said in an interview.

“The amount only represents deposits in our bank. There’s a lot of money in the region to include deposits in private banks,” Lorayes explained.

On the other hand, of the P4.6-billion loan released by the country’s official depository bank, P4.4 billion was intended for farm-related activities and only P150 million for small and medium enterprises.

The financing program has benefited 28,420 individuals, mostly small farmers and fisherfolks, according to Lorayes. The bank noted a repayment rate of 99.6 percent last year.

Poverty still present

Despite the region’s financial status as “fund provider,” he pointed out that it does not reflect the true economic scenarios in rural areas since majority of their depositors are government agencies and businessmen.

The region’s poverty incidence is 41.4 percent or nearly half of the region’s population has remained poor from 2006 to 2009, the National Statistical Coordination Board regional office said in its latest report.

The official said that the big volume of deposits in banks is a manifestation that some local investors are hesitant to put in new capital or expand their business.

“For small fishermen and fisher folks, we have been assisting not only in provision of capital but identifying market as well,” Lorayes said.

LandBank is reaching out individuals in the grassroots level for credit access by forging partnerships with associations based in villages and rural banks operating in the region.

He added that it has been their thrust to assist micro enterprises, considering that despite their limited business scopes, microenterprises have a significant and positive effect on the country’s economy.

“They maximize resources abundant in their community. Second, they bank on locally available human resources,” the official said.

Borrowing coverage on the agriculture sector has expanded to finance more activities, such as infrastructure in farming communities, planting of non-rice crops (cassava), high value commercial crops production and crop insurance.

Economic activities regularly financed by the LandBank include crop production, livestock, fishery activities, agricultural services, marketing loans, and agro-processing. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)