BDO, Japanese bank ink deal to help SMEs

MANILA, Philippines - BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) has entered into an agreement with Japanese bank The Joyo Bank Ltd. to provide financing assistance to small and medium enterprise (SME) clients from Japan.

Based on the deal signed recently, BDO would provide assistance to Joyo Bank’s SME clients looking to invest in the Philippines.

BDO’s support may be in the form of financial or non-financial advisory services.

Joyo Bank is a 79-year-old bank and a leading financial institution in the Ibaraki Prefecture and surrounding regions.

BDO, meanwhile, is one of the country’s leading banks that provides an extensive range of customized and cutting edge banking solutions to its corporate, institutional and retail client base.  

The agreement is an offshoot of the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 by BDO with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) essentially promoting the development and strengthening of a framework to support Japanese mid-tier companies as well as SMEs through Japanese regional banks (JRB).

These JRBs, strategically situated in the various prefectures of one of the world’s largest economies, will be the conduits for their SME clients that will be requiring banking support when they decide to set up shop in the Philippines.

BDO said it would continue to collaborate closely with JBIC to explore more tie-ups and potentially assist the Japanese SMEs to establish operations throughout the Philippines, including the special economic zones.