IFC taps RCBC to help women in SMEs

MANILA, Philippines - The International Finance Corp. (IFC) of the World Bank Group has tapped Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) to jointly launch a pioneering empowerment program for women involved in small-medium-enterprises (SMEs), a top bank official said.

“RCBC is proud to be the first Philippine bank to be tapped for IFC’s Women in Business program in East Asia,” said Lorenzo Tan, RCBC president and chief executive officer.

“We see great opportunities in helping Filipino women who own or manage small and medium businesses to create more jobs.”  

The cooperation agreement aims to specifically improve financial and technical services to women-owned small businesses.

Under the Women in Business program in East Asia and the Pacific, IFC partners with financial intermediaries to scale up the provision of financial services and business support to women-owned SMES in order to promote their growth and development.

In the Philippines, IFC will work with RCBC to enhance the bank’s products and services as well as its branding and marketing strategy to reach more women entrepreneurs and increase lending to them.

For his part, IFC resident representative Jesse Ang said the partnership “would allow Filipino women to pursue economic activities that are normally beyond the reach of micro and very small enterprises. They can grow their businesses, hire more employees, and include more poor people in the country’s economic development.”

According to separate studies conducted between 2007 and 2011 by the World Bank and IFC, 68 percent of SMES in the Philippines need loans to fulfill their business needs.

Filipino women entrepreneurs, who own 70 percent of these enterprises, perceive bank financing as expensive and difficult to obtain, the studies show.

IFC is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector.

In 2012, IFC’s investments reached an all-time high of more than $20 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs, spark innovation, and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges.